IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/epolin/v49y2022i3d10.1007_s40812-022-00222-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From Heron of Alexandria to Amazon’s Alexa: a stylized history of AI and its impact on business models, organization and work

Author

Listed:
  • Lucrezia Fanti

    (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)

  • Dario Guarascio

    (Sapienza University of Rome)

  • Massimo Moggi

    (Westpole)

Abstract

This paper explores the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on business models, organization and work. First, we provide a stylized history of AI highlighting the technological, organizational and market-related factors fostering its diffusion and transformative potential. We show how AI evolved from being a scientific field to a mostly corporate-dominated field characterized by strong concentration of technological and economic power. Second, we analyze the consequences of AI adoption for business models, organization and work. Our discussion contributes to show how the development and diffusion of this technological domain gives new strength to the lean-production paradigm - in both manufacturing and service sectors - by contributing to the establishment of the new ‘digital Taylorism’.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucrezia Fanti & Dario Guarascio & Massimo Moggi, 2022. "From Heron of Alexandria to Amazon’s Alexa: a stylized history of AI and its impact on business models, organization and work," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 49(3), pages 409-440, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:epolin:v:49:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s40812-022-00222-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s40812-022-00222-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40812-022-00222-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40812-022-00222-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giovanni DOSI & Maria Enrica VIRGILLITO, 2019. "Whither the evolution of the contemporary social fabric? New technologies and old socio‐economic trends," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(4), pages 593-625, December.
    2. Herbert A. Simon, 1996. "The Sciences of the Artificial, 3rd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262691914, April.
    3. Dosi, Giovanni & Nelson, Richard R., 2010. "Technical Change and Industrial Dynamics as Evolutionary Processes," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 51-127, Elsevier.
    4. Rikap, Cecilia, 2022. "Becoming an intellectual monopoly by relying on the national innovation system: the State Grid Corporation of China's experience," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(4).
    5. Andrea Coveri & Claudio Cozza & Dario Guarascio, 2021. "Monopoly Capitalism in the Digital Era," Working Papers in Public Economics 209, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Economics and Law.
    6. Dosi, Giovanni, 1993. "Technological paradigms and technological trajectories : A suggested interpretation of the determinants and directions of technical change," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 102-103, April.
    7. Ajay Agrawal & Joshua S. Gans & Avi Goldfarb, 2019. "Artificial Intelligence: The Ambiguous Labor Market Impact of Automating Prediction," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 31-50, Spring.
    8. Gianluca Capone & Franco Malerba & Richard R. Nelson & Luigi Orsenigo & Sidney G. Winter, 2019. "History friendly models: retrospective and future perspectives," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 9(1), pages 1-23, March.
    9. Erik Brynjolfsson & Tom Mitchell & Daniel Rock, 2018. "What Can Machines Learn, and What Does It Mean for Occupations and the Economy?," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 108, pages 43-47, May.
    10. David H. Autor, 2015. "Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(3), pages 3-30, Summer.
    11. Martina Iori & Arianna Martinelli & Andrea Mina, 2021. "The direction of technical change in AI and the trajectory effects of government funding," LEM Papers Series 2021/41, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    12. Malerba, Franco & Orsenigo, Luigi, 1997. "Technological Regimes and Sectoral Patterns of Innovative Activities," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 6(1), pages 83-117.
    13. Malerba, Franco & Orsenigo, Luigi, 1996. "Schumpeterian patterns of innovation are technology-specific," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 451-478, May.
    14. Malerba, Franco & Orsenigo, Luigi, 1996. "The Dynamics and Evolution of Industries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 5(1), pages 51-87.
    15. Cecilia Rikap & Bengt-Åke Lundvall, 2021. "The Digital Innovation Race," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-030-89443-6, February.
    16. Christopher Freeman, 1991. "Innovation, Changes of Techno-Economic Paradigm and Biological Analogies in Economics," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 42(2), pages 211-232.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andrea Coveri & Claudio Cozza & Dario Guarascio, 2023. "Blurring boundaries: an analysis of the digital platforms-military nexus," LEM Papers Series 2023/47, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    2. Federico Boffa & Amedeo Piolatto & Evila Piva & Florian Schuett, 2022. "Industry dynamics in digital markets," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 49(3), pages 401-407, September.
    3. Pedota, Mattia, 2023. "Big data and dynamic capabilities in the digital revolution: The hidden role of source variety," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(7).
    4. Dario Guarascio & Jelena Reljic & Giacomo Cucignatto & Giuseppe Celi & Annamaria Simonazzi, 2023. "Between a rock and a hard place. Long-term drivers of EU structural vulnerability," Working Papers in Public Economics 237, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Economics and Law.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lucrezia Fanti & Dario Guarascio & Massimo Moggi, 2020. "The development of AI and its impact on business models, organization and work," LEM Papers Series 2020/25, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    2. Montobbio, Fabio & Staccioli, Jacopo & Virgillito, Maria Enrica & Vivarelli, Marco, 2022. "Robots and the origin of their labour-saving impact," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    3. Fabio Pammolli & Massimo Riccaboni & Alessandro Spelta, 2021. "The network origins of Schumpeterian innovation," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(5), pages 1411-1431, November.
    4. Dosi, Giovanni & Nelson, Richard R., 2010. "Technical Change and Industrial Dynamics as Evolutionary Processes," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 51-127, Elsevier.
    5. Giovanni Dosi & Richard Nelson, 2013. "The Evolution of Technologies: An Assessment of the State-of-the-Art," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 3(1), pages 3-46, June.
    6. Jasmine Mondolo, 2022. "The composite link between technological change and employment: A survey of the literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 1027-1068, September.
    7. Murat YILDIZOGLU, 2009. "Evolutionary approaches of economic dynamics (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2009-16, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    8. Giovanni DOSI & Maria Enrica VIRGILLITO, 2019. "Whither the evolution of the contemporary social fabric? New technologies and old socio‐economic trends," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(4), pages 593-625, December.
    9. Matteo Lucchese, 2011. "Innovation, demand and structural change in Europe," Working Papers 1109, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2011.
    10. Terranova, Roberta & Turco, Enrico M., 2022. "Concentration, stagnation and inequality: An agent-based approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 569-595.
    11. Albert Faber & Koen Frenken, 2008. "Models in evolutionary economics and environmental policy: Towards an evolutionary environmental economics," Innovation Studies Utrecht (ISU) working paper series 08-15, Utrecht University, Department of Innovation Studies, revised Apr 2008.
    12. Martin Cimiterra & Jackie Krafft & Lionel Nesta, 2021. "Blockchain as Schumpeter Mark 1 or Mark 2? An empirical analysis of blockchain job offers in France and Germany [Innovation: mapping the winds of creative destruction]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(6), pages 1388-1402.
    13. Martin Kalthaus, 2020. "Knowledge recombination along the technology life cycle," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 643-704, July.
    14. Pietro Moncada-Paternò-Castello & Nicola Grassano, 2022. "The EU vs US corporate R&D intensity gap: investigating key sectors and firms [A primer on innovation and growth]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 31(1), pages 19-38.
    15. Malen, Joel & Marcus, Alfred A., 2017. "Promoting clean energy technology entrepreneurship: The role of external context," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 7-15.
    16. Andrea Borsato & André Lorentz, 2023. "Data production and the coevolving AI trajectories: an attempted evolutionary model," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 33(5), pages 1427-1472, November.
    17. Chang, Yuan-Chieh & Chen, Min-Nan, 2016. "Service regime and innovation clusters: An empirical study from service firms in Taiwan," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1845-1857.
    18. Ekaterina Prytkova, 2021. "ICT's Wide Web: a System-Level Analysis of ICT's Industrial Diffusion with Algorithmic Links," Jena Economics Research Papers 2021-005, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    19. Giacomo Damioli & Vincent Van Roy & Daniel Vertesy & Marco Vivarelli, 2024. "AI as a new emerging technological paradigm: evidence from global patenting," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Politica Economica dipe0038, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    20. Fossen, Frank M. & McLemore, Trevor & Sorgner, Alina, 2024. "Artificial Intelligence and Entrepreneurship," IZA Discussion Papers 17055, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:epolin:v:49:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s40812-022-00222-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.