Technology evaluation process and its influential strategic factors: cases in Taiwan's semiconductor sector

Firms capable of catching the strategic values of technologies have competitive advantages over their rivals. Technology evaluation, as an organisational process, is the essential capability to comprehend the values of technologies in their very early emerging stages. This study defines a technology evaluation process in terms of activities, method, and participants in the process, and uses this definition to explore different types of technology evaluation processes. With case study research method and data from the semiconductor industrial sector in Taiwan, three types of technology evaluation processes are verified, namely, the emergent autocratic strategist, deliberate consensual economist, and deliberate consensual analyst strategies. Technological trajectory and firm size are found to influence a firm's technology evaluation process and its types of innovation. The established explanations of the relationships among technological trajectory, competitive posture, innovation type, and technology evaluation process may guide high-tech businesses to develop a better technology evaluation capability.