Firm and Entrepreneurial Strategy During the Emergence of New General-Purpose Technologies

General-purpose technologies (or GPTs) such as artificial intelligence (AI), electricity, information technology (IT), and lasers are characterized by their wide usability, ability to spur complementary innovation in application sectors, and ability to improve themselves over time. Although GPTs have recently received attention in strategy and entrepreneurship research, there is much we need to learn about firm strategy during the emergent phases of new GPTs. This is important to study not only for the implications it can have for firms’ performance in these phases but also the implications firm strategy can have on the macro-level emergence of new GPTs. Using data from carbon nanomaterials and commercial drones, both emerging GPTs, this dissertation consists of three essays that address this lacuna and examine the antecedents and implications of strategic decisions firms make with new GPTs. The first essay (chapter 2) examined how markets for technology and pre-entry experiences shape the direction of startups’ inventive activity with new GPTs. The second essay (chapter 3) studied how startups leverage alliance portfolios with existing firms spread across many downstream industries to commercialize a new GPT. Finally, the third essay (chapter 4) explored how legitimacy concerns shaped the nature of inventive activity within the commercial drone industry. Together, these essays demonstrated how being faced with a new GPT introduces novel considerations for firm strategy while also alluding to how the strategic decisions that firms take contribute to and shape the emergence of new GPTs.