IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v62y2019i6p819-829.html

How intelligent is Watson? Enabling digital transformation through artificial intelligence

Author

Listed:
  • Magistretti, Stefano
  • Dell’Era, Claudio
  • Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio

Abstract

Due to its intrinsic characteristics, artificial intelligence (AI) can be considered a general-purpose technology (GPT) in the digital era. Most studies in the field focus on the ex-post recognition and classification of GPT but in this article, we look at a GPT design ex-ante by reviewing the extreme and inspiring example of IBM’s Watson. Our objective is to shed light on how companies can create value through AI. In particular, our longitudinal case study highlights the strategic decisions IBM took to create value in two dimensions: internal development and external collaborations. We offer relevant implications for practitioners and academics eager to know more about AI in the digital world.

Suggested Citation

  • Magistretti, Stefano & Dell’Era, Claudio & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio, 2019. "How intelligent is Watson? Enabling digital transformation through artificial intelligence," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 62(6), pages 819-829.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:62:y:2019:i:6:p:819-829
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2019.08.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681319301168
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2019.08.004?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Levinthal, Daniel A, 1998. "The Slow Pace of Rapid Technological Change: Gradualism and Punctuation in Technological Change," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 7(2), pages 217-247, June.
    2. Youngjin Yoo & Richard J. Boland & Kalle Lyytinen & Ann Majchrzak, 2012. "Organizing for Innovation in the Digitized World," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(5), pages 1398-1408, October.
    3. Bresnahan, Timothy F. & Trajtenberg, M., 1995. "General purpose technologies 'Engines of growth'?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 83-108, January.
    4. Kerstin Cuhls, 2003. "From forecasting to foresight processes-new participative foresight activities in Germany," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2-3), pages 93-111.
    5. Cohen, Wesley M & Levinthal, Daniel A, 1989. "Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R&D," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(397), pages 569-596, September.
    6. Jan Youtie & Maurizio Iacopetta & Stuart Graham, 2008. "Assessing the nature of nanotechnology: can we uncover an emerging general purpose technology?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 315-329, June.
    7. Chesbrough, Henry, 2003. "The governance and performance of Xerox's technology spin-off companies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 403-421, March.
    8. Gambardella, Alfonso & Giarratana, Marco S., 2013. "General technological capabilities, product market fragmentation, and markets for technology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 315-325.
    9. Kaplan, Andreas M. & Haenlein, Michael, 2010. "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 59-68, January.
    10. Erevelles, Sunil & Fukawa, Nobuyuki & Swayne, Linda, 2016. "Big Data consumer analytics and the transformation of marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 897-904.
    11. Andrew M. Pettigrew, 1990. "Longitudinal Field Research on Change: Theory and Practice," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 1(3), pages 267-292, August.
    12. Helpman, Elhanan & Rangel, Antonio, 1999. "Adjusting to a New Technology: Experience and Training," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 359-383, December.
    13. Heiko Wieland & Nathaniel N. Hartmann & Stephen L. Vargo, 2017. "Business models as service strategy," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(6), pages 925-943, November.
    14. Williams, Robin & Edge, David, 1996. "The social shaping of technology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 865-899, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Appio, Francesco Paolo & Martini, Antonella & Fantoni, Gualtiero, 2017. "The light and shade of knowledge recombination: Insights from a general-purpose technology," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 154-165.
    2. Mithun S. Ullal & Iqbal Thonse Hawaldar & Rashmi Soni & Mohammed Nadeem, 2021. "The Role of Machine Learning in Digital Marketing," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, October.
    3. Olga Kokshagina & Pascal Le Masson & Benoit Weil, 2015. "Portfolio management in double unknown situations: technological platformsand the role of cross-application managers," Post-Print hal-01199929, HAL.
    4. Marta Götz & Małgorzata Bartosik-Purgat & Barbara Jankowska, 2018. "International Aspects and Challenges of Digital Transformation," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 1, pages 87-102.
    5. Barbieri, Nicolò & Marzucchi, Alberto & Rizzo, Ugo, 2020. "Knowledge sources and impacts on subsequent inventions: Do green technologies differ from non-green ones?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(2).
    6. Czarnitzki, Dirk & Fernández, Gastón P. & Rammer, Christian, 2023. "Artificial intelligence and firm-level productivity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 188-205.
    7. Peter W. Roberts & Raphael Amit, 2003. "The Dynamics of Innovative Activity and Competitive Advantage: The Case of Australian Retail Banking, 1981 to 1995," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 107-122, April.
    8. Battke, Benedikt & Schmidt, Tobias S. & Stollenwerk, Stephan & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2016. "Internal or external spillovers—Which kind of knowledge is more likely to flow within or across technologies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 27-41.
    9. Ma, Li & Li, Xiumin & Pan, Yu, 2024. "Employee allocation efficiency in the context of the digital economy: Evidence from “Broadband China” demonstration cities," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 735-752.
    10. repec:hal:journl:hal-04191308 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Martín-Rojas, Rodrigo & Garrido-Moreno, Aurora & García-Morales, Víctor J., 2023. "Social media use, corporate entrepreneurship and organizational resilience: A recipe for SMEs success in a post-Covid scenario," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    12. Irina Maiorescu & Mihaela Bucur & Bogdan Georgescu & Daniel Moise & Vasile Alecsandru Strat & Ion Daniel Zgură, 2020. "Social Media and IOT Wearables in Developing Marketing Strategies. Do SMEs Differ From Large Enterprises?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-18, September.
    13. Aghion, Philippe & Howitt, Peter & Violante, Giovanni L, 2002. "General Purpose Technology and Wage Inequality," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 315-345, December.
    14. Christoph March & Ina Schieferdecker, 2021. "Technological Sovereignty as Ability, Not Autarky," CESifo Working Paper Series 9139, CESifo.
    15. Christoph Grimpe & Roberto Patuelli, 2011. "Regional knowledge production in nanomaterials: a spatial filtering approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 46(3), pages 519-541, June.
    16. Blasco-Arcas, Lorena & Lee, Hsin-Hsuan Meg & Kastanakis, Minas N. & Alcañiz, Mariano & Reyes-Menendez, Ana, 2022. "The role of consumer data in marketing: A research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 436-452.
    17. repec:idb:brikps:460 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Thomas Niebel & Fabienne Rasel & Steffen Viete, 2019. "BIG data – BIG gains? Understanding the link between big data analytics and innovation," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 296-316, April.
    19. Mastromarco, Camilla & Ghosh, Sucharita, 2009. "Foreign Capital, Human Capital, and Efficiency: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis for Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 489-502, February.
    20. Geissinger, Andrea & Laurell, Christofer & Öberg, Christina & Sandström, Christian, 2023. "Social media analytics for innovation management research: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    21. Bhagyashree Katare & Xuejian Wang & Shuoli Zhao & Jacqueline Yenerall, 2025. "Novel Approaches to Analyze Consumer Behavior and Policies to Promote Sustainable Consumption," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 56(3), pages 512-525, May.
    22. Siachou, Evangelia & Vrontis, Demetris & Trichina, Eleni, 2021. "Can traditional organizations be digitally transformed by themselves? The moderating role of absorptive capacity and strategic interdependence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 408-421.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:bushor:v:62:y:2019:i:6:p:819-829. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    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.