The Mechanism of Late-comer Advantage: Timing of Entry and External Environment Uncertainty: A Case Study of Blue LED Business

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to examine the factors related to the acquisition of competitive advantage by latecomers when they enter new businesses. Previous research on first-mover and late- omer advantages has focused largely on the impact of the timing of entry on competitiveness (Lieberman and Montgomery, 1988, etc.). It has been suggested that latecomers acquire their competitive advantage from the uncertainty of the external environment, such as markets and technology, while first movers benefit from the certainty of the external environment (Okamoto, 2021). However, there is still scope for research on the effects of changes over time in the uncertainty of the external environment on competitive advantage. In this study, we propose a new hypothesis for gaining competitive advantage by considering that the uncertainty of the external environment decreases over time from the entry of the first mover. I attempt to verify this hypothesis using the case of Toyoda Gosei and Nichia's entry into the blue LED business.