Book 09 2008

Abstract

This manual on TM is an educational tool. It is meant to guide local educators in TM in developing countries. Because of the significant variations in the level of development and therefore, the managerial skills required to master the technologies, it is recommended that the educator should extrapolate and possibly adapt those topics in this manual to suit the local environment. The manual consists of eight sections. The first three sections establish a link between corporate strategy and technology strategy. Any company to some extent formalized has a strategy; thus, the technology strategy serves the firm’s corporate strategy and technology decisions must be coherent with the corporate strategy. These sections define the concept of corporate strategy and define the technology strategy leading to the identification of the company's technology needs. Once the firm has identified its technology needs it is faced with a 'make' or 'buy' decision. If it decides to make the technology, it will need to accomplish a process of product/process development; this constitutes the second section. If the company decides to buy the technology it engages in a technology acquisition process, the topic of the third section. Strategic business alliances are a particular means of acquiring technologies. Whether the decision is to make or to buy, the company may engage in a business alliance to achieve its goal. The management of business alliances from a technology perspective is the subject of Section 5. Section 6 examines the product and technology development cycle considering different TM issues. The managing of the technology transfer is analysed in Section 7. The most important risk determinants of such process are also examined. Section 8 deals with the different types of business alliances for achieving higher levels of competitiveness for the firms creating them.