The improvement trajectory of PCR DNA replication and ERP software as general purpose technologies: an exploratory study of ‘anchor technologies’

ABSTRACT

As an effort to peek into the black box of large-scale general purpose technologies (GPTs) like biotechnology and information technology, we develop the concept of ‘anchor technologies’. An anchor technology is a core technology of a large-scale GPT (‘mega-GPT’) that opens a new era in the development and diffusion of the mega-GPT. We trace the historical evolution of two process-based, yet otherwise very different, anchor technologies: enterprise resource planning (ERP) software within the mega-GPT of information technology and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) DNA replication within the mega-GPT of biotechnology. The case studies reveal the utility of ‘productisation’ as an important means of commercialising innovations in anchor technologies; more generally, the interplay between improvement in process-based technologies and in complementary product-based technologies provides insight into how ERP and PCR were able to sustain a path of continued improvement within their respective mega-GPT.

KEYWORDS:

• General purpose technologies
• process-based technologies
• ERP software
• PCR DNA replication
• improvement trajectory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Mark Lehrer received his PhD at INSEAD and is Professor of Strategy and International Business at the Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts.

Preeta M. Banerjee was formerly Assistant Professor of Strategy at Brandeis University and now works for Deloitte Services LP in Waltham, Massachusetts.

I. Kim Wang received her PhD at the University of Illinois and is Assistant Professor of Strategy and International Business at the Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts.