1Engineering, Research, Design & Development Division Maruti Suzuki India Limited, Gurgaon, India, E-mail: Tapan.Sahoo@maruti.co.in.
2Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India.
3Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India.
The key purpose of the paper is to examine reality of Strategic Technology Management (STM) in the Indian context. Despite considerable efforts at enhancing competitiveness through technology management, the scale-up remains low. Among several reasons, weak linkages between the technology strategy and business strategy leading to gaps in the technology capability and competitiveness seem to be the potential root causes. Leadership of firms should have deep understanding of strategic issues of technology management and they should have the drive to go beyond the first set of strategic alliances to enhance capabilities of STM across the journey. While there is considerable literature which emphasizes the importance of linking technology and strategy, reality of STM in Indian context is rarely examined, particularly in mid-size firms. This study examines the longitudinal technology development at an auto component manufacturer in India and analyses the linkage between STM and business performance using the dynamic SAP-LAP analysis. The paper also extends the dynamic SAP-LAP framework to include mapping of STM aspects on a flexibility continuum.
auto component industry, competitiveness, dynamic SAP-LAP, learning issues, strategic technology management (STM), technology capability, technology strategy
