The existing literature on corporate technology strategy has been mostly concerned with firms in the industrialised countries that are operating close to the international technological frontier and focusing on R&D-intensive innovation, i. e. 'technological leaders' following 'offensive' strategies. Very little is known about the strategies of firms relying heavily on adopting existing technology. Almost all firms in developing countries follow this technological pattern and, within the limited existing taxonomies of technology strategy, would be classified simply as 'technological imitators'. However, there can be wide differences between more 'active' and 'passive' imitative strategies. This study explores those differences in technology strategy within a small sample of 20 manufacturing firms in Thailand. Using an interview-based survey, it aims to examine the characteristics of firms' strategies in two different sectors: science-based (electronics) and scale-intensive (steel and petrochemicals). It also explores the relationships between the technology strategies and other aspects of business strategy, as well as other factors, such as size, age, ownership, and market orientation. The analysis focuses on aspects of strategy concerned specifically with the acquisition of technology and the accumulation of technological capabilities. The results show that although most firms focus their broad market and product strategies on the share of existing markets and the cost/quality of existing products, there are differences among firms and between the product strategies of firms in the two main industry groups. Although they were all technological imitators, their past practice and future objectives varied in terms of the market entry approach, the technological basis of market development, and their sourcing of that technology. There were also differences in the intensity of efforts to develop technological capabilities, but a large proportion of the firms made only limited efforts to develop the capabilities for changing and creating their product and process technologies. Differences between the two main industry groups were present but limited, and there were often similarly important
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:386428 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Mukdapitak, Yada |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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