Seminar on Technology Innovation | Professor : Sung Joo Bae
Technology Strategy: An Evolutionary Process Perspective
by Robert A. Burgelman, Richard S. Rosenbloom (1989)
Reviewed by Hye Sun Lee (2011313311)
Summary
In this paper, technology is an important resource at the same level of financial and human
resource for designing business strategies. Management of technology strategy is broader
than R&D strategy. Technology strategy is a function of quantity and quality of capabilities
and competences which it embodies technology choice, level of competence, funding,
development, timing and applying technologies within organization. Development of better
technology strategy can be from routines of building capability-design strategy-experience of
its performance as suggested as organizational learning framework. Thus goal of this study is
to build theoretical framework and discuss about forces that forms technology strategy by
showing dimensions of its substance and enactment.
Factors shaping technology strategy can also be emerged from organizational capabilities.
It can be influenced by the generative forces of the firm’s strategic behavior and smarter
technological environment. Also it can be shaped by the integrative mechanisms of firm’s
organizational context and the industry environment. [Firm’s strategic behavior in
evolutionary perspective refers collections of social learning based on their past success.
Organizational context serves as an internal selection towards strategic management capacity.
Firm’s technology evolution is affected by their technical capability and strategy by the
external forces. Industry context considers competitive market place.] Author considers that 2
dimensions of technology strategy – positions of competitive strategy and value chain – can
be differ depends of posture. Thus suggests 2 additional dimensions for the substance of
technology strategy – scope of technology strategy and depth of technology strategy. For
technology strategy implementation, authors draw process of technology sourcing, product
and process development and technical support for services. As a result, authors conclude
performing technology strategy by suggesting comprehensive and enacting task framework of
addressing strategic substance.
Contribution and Critique
Observing and sorting out particular organization’s strategy can be hard to define due to
inter-relations between processes and integrations of various tasks. Especially, emerging
technologies and industries makes more complex to design strategies as well as to analyze
technology strategies. Until today, many researchers are developing theories and frameworks
that can prove to show patterns of strategic components. In this sense, this paper has
contributed what to consider for comparing or analyzing technology strategy. The
evolutionary process framework for technology strategy overviews macroscopic perspectives
and each module can be a topic for deeper research. I believe this is why authors developed
integrated framework by combining experiences and substances.
However, relation between substance of technological strategy and performance may need
to be researched more. Performance process can be added more or categorize larger leveling
similar as substance. I understand integrated framework is based on evolution process
technology strategy framework but I’m not logically convinced how substances represent
capability. But for the future study, these components that fills matrix can be developed in
order to implement strategy in reality.