Conclusion and outlook

Abstract

A framework consisting of two dimensions can be used to identify technology shocks: one dimension being the effect of technological change on a company’s competence, the second dimension being product architecture, which usually translates itself into performance parameters. Applying the framework to the introduction of numerical controls within the machine tool industry reveals three shocks between 1955 and 2001, which changed the industrial structure and caused established firms to fail’. If the first appearance of a commercial product on the market defines the beginning of a technology shock, then the first shock took place in 1955, the second in 1974 and the third in 1990. Researching these three technology shocks results in implications for research and management of which only the most important ones should be named here.