Firms give away valuable technology when owning it would dilute core focus.

Evidence

Thus, it was generally more valuable in the short run for Intel to give away technology and quickly disseminate it in the market, rather than try to build a business around it. This indicates another powerful effect of co-evolutionary lock-in. As Intel’s extraordinary lucrative core business continued to grow very fast in the mid-1990s, Andy Grove increasingly considered non-core business opportunities as distractions. Also, Grove’s effective communication with the business press and with stock market analysts reinforced Intel’s identity as a highly focused microprocessor company (Zuckerman, 2000). Consequently, it became increasingly difficult for non-core new businesses to command top management attention and obtain corporate resources. — Georg Schreyögg and Jörg Sydow, The Hidden Dynamics of Path Dependence, 1137

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to mainstream corporate-focus / core-competence doctrine, showing focus as a liability, not a virtue.
• SEED: Angle: when deliberately forgoing a new business is the rational short-run move that quietly forecloses the long run.