The Adoption of Technologies Defined as General Purpose Technologies and Inventions of Methods of Inventing : An Explorative Study of the Adoption of the Immersive Technologies Extended Reality and Digital Twins

Sammanfattning: This study set out to investigate the adequacy of the prevailing theoretical models regarding technology adoption when it comes to the adoption of revolutionary technologies characterised as general purpose technologies (GPTs) and inventions of methods of inventing (IMIs). With the ever-increasing speed of technology development, we will likely experience more frequent implementations and adoption of GPTs and IMIs. It is not a one-off. Hence, practitioners must have proper tools and strategies to lean on for understanding how to navigate in such situations and how to best leverage the possibilities posed by a successful implementation of these technologies into organisations and industry ecosystems. The study has shown that the prevailing models do not fully cover and explain the introduction consequences of these kinds of technologies. The insights discussed in this study lead to the creation of a complementary model about technology adoption and can provide an initial base of knowledge that can be further developed during efforts to update or develop new models and theories within this research area. The work in this study was carried out in an explorative manner based on qualitative interviews with subject matter experts where the GPT and IMI concepts were investigated through the two emerging technologies, extended reality (XR) and digital twins. The study also presents the rationale that XR and digital twin technologies uphold the potential of being GPTs and IMIs. However, these technologies are still in an early phase with an emerging nature where their profound impact is yet to be seen.