Enabling technologies, which can also be called general-purpose technologies, are discoveries arising from advanced science and engineering activity that allow the creation or improvement of products and services across a wide product scope. They have platform-like features and often exhibit strong complementarities with existing and/or new technologies.
Enabling technologies are science and engineering discoveries with the potential to allow the creation or improved performance across a wide range of product categories. They are closely related to the concept of general-purpose technologies, a category that has in the past included industrial products, such as steam engines, railways and machine tools that support improvement in multiple applications and in multiple industrial contexts. Lipsey et al. (1998) and Rosenberg and Trajtenberg (2004) make the case that general-purpose equipment such as the Corliss steam engine can be a major driver of economic growth.
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Teece, D.J. (2016). Enabling Technologies. In: Augier, M., Teece, D. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94848-2_78-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94848-2_78-1
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