Abstract

How long do nascent industries take to become commercially viable? This paper applies historical methods to the two contemporaneous cases of emergence of the airlines and insulin industry in the early 1900s. The primitive state of new technologies often entails experimentation by multiple actors for the technologic challenges to be resolved, and for a commercially viable industry to be shaped. We identify technological interdependence as well as lack of pre-existing ecosystem and knowledge in related industries as two key factors lengthening the required duration for such experimentations to occur.

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• Keyword(s):
• strategy and entrepreneurship 188