Hidden in plain sight: QWERTY, the search for optimality and IP complementarity.
The evolution of the QWERTY keyboard layout has been the subject of much debate. Prior discussions of QWERTY, however, have largely focused on engineering issues, while often ignoring the key competitive and intellectual property strategies surrounding the design. We argue that the keyboard layout Q...
| Publicado en: | Business History Vol. 67; no. 8; pp. 2209 - 2232 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Nov2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=190255923&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 190255923 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00076791 BHI jtl: Business History issn: 00076791 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Nov2025 vid: 67 iid: 8 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 190255923 10.1080/00076791.2025.2458052 ppf: 2209 ppct: 23 formats: tig: atl: Hidden in plain sight: QWERTY, the search for optimality and IP complementarity. aug: au: Galbraith, Craig S. Kay, Neil affil: Cameron School of Business, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, USA Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK su: Intellectual property Keyboards (Electronics) Path dependence (Social sciences) Inventions Entrepreneurship sug: subj: Intellectual property Keyboards (Electronics) Path dependence (Social sciences) Inventions Entrepreneurship keyword: IP complementarities optimality path dependence QWERTY trade secret ab: The evolution of the QWERTY keyboard layout has been the subject of much debate. Prior discussions of QWERTY, however, have largely focused on engineering issues, while often ignoring the key competitive and intellectual property strategies surrounding the design. We argue that the keyboard layout QWERTY was a consequence of entrepreneurial mindfulness combined with a creative design rather than an accident of history. This paper also shows how complementarities in intellectual property rights protection played an integral role in the early development of QWERTY and helped to effectively conceal the source of the efficiency advantages that QWERTY delivered at the time. Finally, we suggest possible arguments why the QWERTY standard has continued into the modern age separate from a path dependence argument. This further serves to raise serious questions over QWERTY's forced servitude as 'paradigm case' of inferior standard in the path dependence literature. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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