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Technology management summary, BDK ()
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Summary of the book Technology Management (Cetindamar) for the subject Technology Management for Business Administration .
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TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT – SUMMARYINTRODUCTION: A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING TM ACTIVITIES AND TOOLS
Technology management is the management of technological capabilities to shape and accomplish the
strategic and operational objectives of an organization.
Intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements that attach to certain names,
written and recorded media and inventions.
1.1 DEFINITION
Technological capabilities consist of dynamic and operational capabilities that are a collection of
routines/activities to execute and coordinate the variety of tasks required to manage technology. An
appropriate paradigm/perspective on understanding TM could be the dynamic capabilities theory. Dynamic
capabilities are the ability to reconfigure, redirect, transform and appropriately shape and integrate existing
core competencies with external resources and strategic and complementary assets to meet the challenges of
a time-pressured, rapidly changing world of competition and imitation.
Reasons why the dynamic-capabilities theory can enhance the understanding of TM:
It is not specific technological innovations but rather the capability to generate a stream of product,
service and process changes that matter for long-term firm performance.
It is possible to observe the dynamics taking place in the organization of firms, since the unit of
analysis is the capabilities.
Dynamic-capabilities theory considers the market or the product as objects of strategic reconstruction
and thus emphasizes the key role of strategic management in appropriately adapting, integrating and
reconfiguring internal and external organizational skills, resources and functional competencies
towards a changing environment.
Capabilities might be dynamic or operational. Operational capabilities are a collection of high-level routines/a
routine that, together with its implementing input flows, confers upon an organization’s management a set of
decision options for producing significant outputs of a particular type. A routine describes a ‘repetitive pattern
of activity’. Competences refer to activities to be performed by assembling firm-specific assets/resources.
Technological capabilities consist of dynamic and operational capabilities, which are a collection of
routines/activities to execute and coordinate the variety of tasks required to manage technology.
Dynamic capabilities theory aims to explain the way in which a firm allocates resources for innovation over
time, how it deploys its existing resources and where it obtains new resources. Each TM activity is related to a
certain technological capability, comprising one or more processes/routines/competencies. Process can be
described as an approach to achieving a managerial objective through the transformation of inputs into
outputs.
1.2 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TM AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT
The central idea behind open innovation is that in a world of widely distributed knowledge, companies cannot
afford to rely entirely on their own research, but should instead buy or license processes or inventions from
other companies. Innovation is doing something new such as a product, process or service, including newness
in the firm. Innovation management is the successful implementation of novel ideas that form different
innovation types within an organization. Four main innovation types are:
A product innovation is the introduction of a good or service that is new or significantly improved with
respect to its characteristics or intended uses. This includes significant improvements in technical
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, specifications, components and materials, incorporated software, user-friendliness or other functional
characteristics.
A process innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved production, service or
delivery method. This includes significant changes in techniques, equipment and/or software.
A marketing innovation ranges from a new marketing method involving significant changes in product
design or packaging, product placement, product promotion to pricing.
An organizational innovation is the implementation of a new organizational method in the firm’s
business practices, workplace organization or external relations.
Eco-innovation is the creation of novel and competitively priced goods, processes, systems, services
and procedures that can satisfy human needs and bring quality of life to all people with minimal use of
natural resources per unit output, and a minimal release of toxic substances.
Reverse innovation refers to product and service innovations aimed at resource-constrained customers
in emerging markets.
Design-driven innovation is based on user experience and meaning for products and services. It offers
surprise and pleasure at the look and feel of a product or a service.
1.3 THE TM FRAMEWORK TO SET THE CONTEXT
The TM activities are linked to or embedded within three core business processes: strategy, innovation and
operations. Key aspects of the framework include:
The linkage between
technological and commercial
perspectives in the firm.
The knowledge flows that
support this linkage.
The core business processes
of strategy, innovation
(including new product
development) and operations.
The TM processes:
identification, selection,
acquisition, exploitation,
protection and learning.
The organizational and
environmental context in which the firm operates (the ‘system’), which includes additional internal
elements of the system, such as staff and other business processes and sub-systems, together with
external elements such as customers etc.
Time (change, trends, evolution and synchronization).
The aim of effective TM is to ensure that technological issues are incorporated appropriately in these processes,
to form a system that is coherent and integrated across and beyond specific business processes and activities.
The TM framework offers many advantages:
It allows us to conceive that TM activities might operate in any business process, department or
business system level.
The framework does not differentiate with respect to the sector in which firms operate.
The framework also indicates that the specific TM issues faced by firms depend on the context, in term
of organizational structure, systems, infrastructure, culture and structure, and the particular business
environment and challenges confronting the firm, which change over time.
The TM framework is in line with the dynamic-capabilities framework.
It is applicable to all firms regardless of their size.
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, The framework considers technology as a resource.
The framework emphasizes the dynamic nature of the knowledge flows that must occur between the
commercial and technological functions in the firm.
1.4 TM ACTIVITIES BEHIND TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITIES
The firm’s knowledge base includes its technological competencies as well as its knowledge of customer needs
and supplier capabilities. These competencies reflect individual skills and experiences as well as distinctive ways
of doing things inside firms. Capabilities are gradually accumulated through various processes, procedures,
routines and structures that are embedded in practice.
The purpose in offering a generic set of TM activities is to achieve four key learning objectives:
The core set of generic TM activities can be customized by any organization and is applicable at any
level as well as at any size of firm.
Knowing the main TM activities can reduce confusion between TM and other management activities
such as innovation management.
Linear and limited perceptions on TM activities can be replaced with a dynamic view that emphasizes
the links between activities.
Managers as well as engineers and management students who want to pursue careers in TM can
conceive what skills and knowledge are necessary to manage technology.
MAIN TM ACTIVITIES
Six generic TM activities:
I. Acquisition: how the company obtains the technologies valuable for its business. It is based on the
buy-collaborate0make decision. Technologies might be developed internally, by collaboration or
acquired from external developers. The management of acquisition differs on the basis of the choice
made.
II. Exploitation: entails commercialization but first the expected benefits need to be realized through
effective implementation, absorption and operation of the technology within the firm. Technologies
are assimilated through technology transfer either from R&D to manufacturing or from external
company/partner to internal manufacturing department. Exploitation processes include incremental
developments, process improvements and marketing.
III. Identification is necessary for technologies at all stages of development and market life cycle. This
process includes market changes as well as technological developments. Identification includes search,
auditing, data collection and intelligence processes for technologies and markets.
IV. Learning is a critical part of technological competency. It involves reflections on technology projects
and processes carried out within or outside the firm. There is a strong link between this process and
the broader field of knowledge management.
V. Protection: formal processes such as patenting and staff retention need to be in place in order to
protect intellectual assets within a firm.
VI. Selection takes account of company-level strategic issues, which requires a good grasp of strategic
objectives and priorities developed at the business-strategy level. The selection process aligns
technology-related decisions with business strategy.
The TM capabilities does not include the innovation capability, because:
It’s the ability to mould and manage multiple capabilities. The TM capabilities are a subset of
capabilities that are integrated within the innovation system.
Each of the TM capabilities involves an innovative element in itself.
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, The level of TM activities will change over the life cycle of a firm for many reasons such as product
diversification or complexities in technologies
NONLINEARITY OF TM ACTIVITIES
It is likely that some companies will focus on particular activities at any one time, and that the set might change
over the course of time, depending on the needs and circumstances of the company. The links between TM
activities might not necessarily follow a linear relationship.
ACTIVITIES SUPPORTING TM
Project management refers to managerial activities associated with all types of projects such as
product development. Each TM activity can be considered as a project, necessitating knowledge and
skill to manage it.
Knowledge management is a widely used term for managing the knowledge accumulated in a
company, including non-technology-based knowledge. Knowledge constitutes not only cognition or
recognition (know-what), but also the capacity to act (know-how) as well as understanding (know-why)
that resides within the mind. All TM processes are involved with knowledge at some level and they
necessitate adopting KM practices.
Innovation management is involved with various innovations being financial, organizational and
technological, so it naturally shares common ground with TM but it is a broader management exercise,
covering the management of all sorts of innovations.
Supporting activities will vary from case to case depending on the company size, objectives and technology
characteristics.
1.5 TM TOOLS
Tools include devices for supporting both action/practical application and frameworks for conceptual
understanding. The TM tools are grouped under six headings on the basis of their functions in a company:
Tools for external information analysis, such as technology forecast and benchmarking.
Tools for internal information analysis, such as skills and innovation audit.
Tools to calculate workload and resources needed in projects, such as project management and
portfolio management.
Tools to manage working together, such as interface management and networking.
Idea creation and problem-solving techniques, such as creativity and value analysis.
Tools related to improving efficiency and flexibility, such as lean thinking and continuous improvement.
Problems with the Temaguide list above are:
The level of tools applicable to TM activities makes it difficult to grasp.
The wide spectrum of tools raises the question of their relevance to TM.
These lists do not necessarily clarify which tools constitute the body of TM as a distinct discipline and
which are not developed particularly for TM but are widely used in carrying out TM activities.
Four major disciplines are considered to constitute the basis for a master of science programme in a
management of technology curriculum:
Management of technology-centred knowledge: management procedures associated with the
exploitation of technological resources.
Knowledge of corporate functions: classic business functions such as marketing, finance, accounting
etc.
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