Technology cross-fertilization and the business model: The case of integrating ICTs in mechanical engineering products

This paper investigates the increasing interdependency among different bodies of knowledge in products, from the technology opportunities arising from ‘cross-fertilizing’, and how firms try to appropriate economic value from their technical potential. The study is based on three multi-national corporations, and their integration of information and communication technologies into established mechanical engineering products. The case studies show how technology cross-fertilization needs to be accompanied by business model changes in order to achieve increased economic value. While much attention has been given to the input dimension of multi-technology products, the economic and commercial domains have been rather ignored in previous literature. This work contributes to the management literature by linking the input resources with the market output for creating and appropriating value from technology cross-fertilization.