A Fearless Culture Fuels US Tech Giants

[Commentary] With June’s announcement that the European Union is investigating Amazon for possible anticompetitive behavior in the sale of e-books, antitrust fervor in Europe seems to have hit fever pitch. Apple, Google and Facebook are all subjects of investigation, and Amazon is now the focus of at least three separate inquiries. Europe’s top antitrust regulator, Margrethe Vestager, wants us to believe it’s just coincidence that so many targets are American tech companies: “This just reflects that there are many strong companies in the US that influence the digital market elsewhere,” she said. But even if true, why would that be? Why hasn’t Europe fostered the kind of innovation that has spawned hugely successful technology companies? Put another way, when have United States regulators investigated and filed suit against a European technology company for market dominance? (Answer: never.)

There are institutional and structural barriers to innovation in Europe, like smaller pools of venture capital and rigid employment laws that restrict growth. But both Jacob Kirkegaard, a Danish economist, and Professor Petra Moser, an assistant professor of economics at Stanford and its Europe Center, while noting that there are always individual exceptions to sweeping generalities about Europeans and Americans, said that the major barriers were cultural. There is also little or no stigma in Silicon Valley to being fired; Steve Jobs himself was forced out of Apple. “Europeans are conservative with a small ‘c,’” Kirkegaard said. “They pretty much like things the way they are.”