Striving for a Large Market: Evidence from a General Purpose Technology in Action

Abstract

Various scholars have tried to focus on growth accounting of specific examples of general purpose technologies (GPTs). However, what are the factors that might make a GPT succeed or fail once the invention has been "triggered?" This article is a preliminary answer to this question and attempts to study GPTs from an ex-ante perspective trying to understand the strategic behavior, business model and performance of producer firms and what the factors are that can favor or hamper diffusion in the application sectors. The article follows a historical perspective on a control technology, introduced in the last few decades by a silicon valley start-up company.