Yang Liu

Strategy research has long linked sustained competitive advantage to barriers to imitation. We highlight network effects as an alternative mechanism and adopt a geotemporal perspective to theorize how firms sustain advantage as it unfolds over time in international markets. Our study examines this question through the performance persistence of social platforms, focusing on how institutional and demand-side conditions shape the sustainability of platforms’ competitive advantages. We propose that intellectual property rights protection may restrict the degree of freedom in information dissemination, dampening the role of network effects in sustaining superior performance, whilst demand heterogeneity may enhance the value of sizable network membership for information consumption. Evidence from a cross-country dataset of platforms supports these predictions. These findings enrich our understanding of how geographic variations shape the endurance of a platform’s competitive advantage over time, offering implications for both global strategy and platform governance.

We examine the impact of non‐R&D subsidies on digital product innovation among Chinese manufacturing firms and explore the conditions that influence this relationship. Building on theories of non‐R&D subsidies effectiveness, we propose that non‐R&D subsidies positively influence a firm's digital product innovation. This relationship is further strengthened when the firm is a state‐owned enterprise and holds a low status in the market hierarchy. Results from a longitudinal dataset of publicly listed Chinese firms support our main arguments. Our findings extend the understanding of the drivers of digital product innovation and the role of non‐R&D subsidies in innovation activities.