Cross-sectional technology

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Cross-sectional technologies ( English general purpose technology ) are technologies whose application is not limited to one branch of industry , but can be used in many branches of industry.

General

Cross-sectional technologies are the trigger for macroeconomic structural change and long-wave business cycles of economic growth . These are radical product innovations that result in continuous incremental expansions, implementations and organizational reorganizations in almost all economic sectors and across all value chains .

A cross-sectional technology is a technology with which productivity effects can be achieved in many industries and in many applications. This penetration process can take a long time - based on pilot applications - because users often only realize the potential of cross-sectional technologies late.

Examples

A typical example is information technology , which is used in the chemical industry , electrical engineering or mechanical engineering and other industries. As a cross-sectional technology, the Internet also intervenes in almost all areas of daily life. The biotechnology captured the departments of biochemistry , microbiology and process engineering , the wider community also includes the engineering sciences .

Other cross-sectional technologies include electronic money , robotics , sensor technology , signal processing software , as well as nanotechnology and material technology , techniques to increase energy efficiency or miniaturized drive systems .

Vertical and horizontal externalities

In general, it is assumed that the development of cross-sectional technologies and the associated knowledge spillover generate positive externalities . But new technological knowledge can destroy the innovation rents of the innovation actors already active in the market (negative horizontal externalities). Public research institutions that are not sufficiently application-oriented can also negatively influence the integration of cross-sectional technologies in the downstream user industries and their learning curves; this creates negative vertical externalities. This also applies to the promotion of the development of cross-sectional technologies that result in problems that were not foreseen in use. From this one can draw the conclusion that it is not so much the development but rather the application of cross-sectional technologies that needs to be promoted by small and medium-sized enterprises.

Promotion of cross-sectional technologies

German technology funding is increasingly focusing on the development and dissemination of such cross-sectional technologies. In doing so, it does not intervene directly in industry competition. The program includes the promotion of the replacement of electric motors and drives, pumps, fans, systems for heat recovery, compressed air generators through more efficient technology as well as LED lighting systems, which apparently result in cross-sector energy-saving effects, but also special promotional effects and the like. a. for the shrinking mining supply industry.

Demarcation

While the cross-sectional technology has cross-sector effects, the basic technology only works in one branch of the economy.

Literature / web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Florian Heiko Kreuchauff, Fractals Double Boom Cycles and Cross- Sectional Technologies , 2015, p. 9
  2. ↑ Florian Heiko Kreuchauff, Fractal Double Boom Cycles and Cross- Sectional Technologies , 2015, p. 10
  3. ↑ Dieter Specht / Martin G. Möhrle (eds.), Gabler Lexikon Technologie Management , 2002, p. 288
  4. ↑ Holger Floeting, Internet und Stadt , in: Alexandra Budke / Detlef Kanwischer / Andreas Pott (eds.), Internetgeographien, 2004, p. 79
  5. ↑ Dieter JG Schneider, Introduction to Technology Marketing , 2002, p. 12
  6. ↑ Reinhard Schulte (Ed.): Results of medium-sized research. Münster 2005, p. 302.
  7. ↑ See e.g. B. Funding of cross-sectional technology from the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control.
  8. ↑ Individual measures by the Federal Office for Economics and Export Control.
  9. ↑ Florian Heiko Kreuchauff, Fractal Double Boom Cycles and Cross- Sectional Technologies , 2015, p. 156