Fernando's research revolves around the determinants of firm performance along the different stages of an industry life cycle. He studies primarily high-technology sectors, particularly telecoms, computers, and software. His main areas of inquiry are:

Entry Timing Advantages
I look at the effect of entry timing on firm survival and performance, and the conditions that enable the existence of first mover advantage.

Dominant Designs, Technology Battles and Platform Markets
My earlier research provided one of the first (and still relatively few) pieces of empirical evidence on the existence of dominant designs. My current work explores the strategic maneuvering and competitive dynamics that firms exploit to achieve dominance in platform markets characterized by strong network effects.

Categorical Dynamics
I study the “fuzzy front end” of industry evolution from a socio-cognitive perspective. In particular, the mechanisms that underlie the co-evolution of categories and technological designs in nascent market spaces, and the determinants and implications of category adoption.

 Strategy under Uncertainty
I study how organizations operate and perform under situations of high environmental uncertainty, with particular emphasis on the role of heuristics and improvisation.

Role of Services for Product Firms.
This research encompasses both theory development and empirical testing to investigate the increasing importance of services for product firms at different stage of industry evolution.