TECHNOLOGY ASSIMILATION IN THE FIRM - MANAGERIAL PERCEPTIONS AND BEHAVIOR

The research on which this paper is based is the first half of a continuing three-year study on technology strategy in UK firms. The research takes the firm as its focus, rather than the individual innovation or the industry sector. In this context it takes technology as the unit of analysis. looking at the acquisition, management and exploitation of technological sources. We take the view that technology is a concept encompassing different kinds of knowledge concerned with the design. production and delivery of products and services. Thus we can talk about product, process and marketing technologies [1]. This paper concentrates on one aspect of technology acquisition and management: the ways in which companies achieve the assimilation of new technologies. We look at the methods used to relate new technology to the existing activities and resources of the firm, and at the managerial issues raised by the process of new technology introduction. We review briefly some literature concerning company technology strategy and acquisition. It highlights some ways in which the process of assimilation of technology impacts upon, and is affected by, managerial perceptions of technologies and their embodiment in products and processes. Data drawn from six opening case studies are used in the paper to illustrate how these elements can be said to constitute a 'technology system' specific to the firm. Technology assimilation affects and is affected by the nature of this system and the way in which managers perceive it. The case studies involve detailed standardized interviews with senior general and technical managers and with technical specialists. Tentative conclusions are drawn concerning differing company profiles and directions for continuing research.