¶ … determinants technology strategy - focusing -topics: - explain internal external environments - Describe integrative mechanisms - Discuss generative mechanisms Structure report 1.
The determinants of technology strategy
The economic agents of the modern day business society have to respond to a wide array of challenges, emerging from both within as well as outside their organizational environments. At an internal level for instance, they face mounting pressures from the need to invest more in their personnel members, to better train and reward them. Additionally, they face pressures at the levels of resource allocation, planning or deadline completion.
At an external level, some of the new challenges for economic agents include the increasing demands of customers, the intensifying competition at both national and international levels or the mounting pressures for environmental responsibility. Aside from these, companies must also address the ongoing evolution of technology, which creates new challenges and opportunities on ongoing bases. In such a complex setting then, the economic agents come to develop and implement technology strategies aimed at capitalizing on the opportunities of technology, such as increased operational efficiency, improved competitive position, better customer relationships and so on.
2. The determinants of the technology strategy
The economic agents have to devise and implement complex technology strategies, through which they increase their chances of attaining their ultimate goals and scopes, namely that of generating financial profits. In the development and implementation of these technology strategies, the companies have to consider a series of determinants, such as those emerging from the internal and external environments, the integrative mechanisms of the generative mechanisms. All these aspects are discussed below.
Determinants in the internal environment
Within the internal environment, the elements which drive the implementation of the technology strategy are numerous and complex, integrating basically all elements...
Some of the more relevant examples in this sense include the following:
The financial capabilities of the firm in purchasing and operating the technology
The managerial philosophy regarding technology and firm's ability to implement change (e.g. resistance to change)
The processes within the firm and their ability to withstand technologic upgrades
The quality of the staffs in managing new technologies
The existence of a technological infrastructure within the firm, formed from both hardware and software (Sahlman, 2010).
Within the real life context of an economic agent, the role of the internal determinants will vary from one institution to the other, based on the specific particularities of each institution. For one company for instance, of an increased importance will be the financial considerations, whereas for another, more emphasis would be placed on the ability to integrate the technology within the business model.
Determinants in the external environment
Aside from the elements that influence the technology strategy from within the firm, there are also several determinants which impact it from the outside environment. Some notable examples in this sense include the following:
The level of technologic development accessible to the industry in which the firm operates
The applicability of the selected technologies within the context of the firm (such as ability to support company operations, to reflect the realities of the industry and so on)
The levels of technologic integration among the competitors of the firm
The overall level of economic development, with developing countries revealing lower levels of technologic integration than firms in the more economically developed nations (Narayanan and Bhat).
The integrative mechanisms
The integrative mechanisms refer to the processes engaged in by the firm in an effort to implement and integrate the technology strategy within its internal environment. One primary such mechanism is represented…
