IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v122y2017icp243-252.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate-level technology strategy and its linkage with corporate strategy in multi-business companies: IKCO case study

Author

Listed:
  • Arasti, Mohammadreza
  • Khaleghi, Mahdi
  • Noori, Javad

Abstract

This article deals with technology strategy and its linkage with overall strategy at multi-business, diversified groups. In the last two decades, the alignment of technology and business strategy has been one of the important research fields in strategy and technology management literature. These researches has been concentrated on single companies through which different frameworks, models, and decision support tools have been developed and widely utilized by industries. Although multi-business and diversified groups play an important role in national economy of developing countries and need a comprehensive and overall plan for the management of their diversified technological capabilities, there is little research focused on corporate-level technology strategy (CTS). This paper introduces a preliminary framework based on literature review, with a deductive approach and content analysis method which tends to more reflect the context of developed countries. Its applicability in a latecomer context has been investigated in practice through a case study in Iran Khodro Company (IKCO)—the largest car manufacturer in the Middle East and a multi-business diversified group in Iran. Based on the proposed framework and through reviewing the related documents and interviewing IKCO senior and middle managers; and using thematic analysis method, we describe and explain how technology strategy is linked to corporate strategy at IKCO. This investigation reflected some mismatches with our initial framework which can be interpreted in a pleasing manner due to IKCO's latecomer context and its position in catch-up path. Process and results of this illustrating study showed that our conceptual framework makes sense as a tool for analyzing CTS in a multibusiness corporation (MBC). Resulted amendments such as highlighting the importance of integration make our modified framework a good basis for further researches.

Suggested Citation

  • Arasti, Mohammadreza & Khaleghi, Mahdi & Noori, Javad, 2017. "Corporate-level technology strategy and its linkage with corporate strategy in multi-business companies: IKCO case study," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 243-252.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:122:y:2017:i:c:p:243-252
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2016.02.013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004016251600055X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.02.013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berry, Maureen M. J. & Taggart, James H., 1998. "Combining technology and corporate strategy in small high tech firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(7-8), pages 883-895, April.
    2. Hipkin, Ian, 2004. "Determining technology strategy in developing countries," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 245-260, June.
    3. Lall, Sanjaya, 1992. "Technological capabilities and industrialization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 165-186, February.
    4. Abramovitz, Moses, 1986. "Catching Up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(2), pages 385-406, June.
    5. Jens Frøslev Christensen, 1998. "The Dynamics of the Diversified Corporation and the Role of Central Management of Technology," DRUID Working Papers 98-4, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    6. Michael Hobday, 1995. "Innovation In East Asia," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 226.
    7. Kiamehr, Mehdi & Hobday, Mike & Hamedi, Mohsen, 2015. "Latecomer firm strategies in complex product systems (CoPS): The case of Iran’s thermal electricity generation systems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 1240-1251.
    8. Macapanpan, Tristan, 1999. "Private Sector Activities on Research and Development," Discussion Papers DP 1999-19, Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
    9. Jens Fr¯slev Christensen, 2002. "Corporate strategy and the management of innovation and technology," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(2), pages 263-288.
    10. Hobday, Michael & Rush, Howard, 2007. "Upgrading the technological capabilities of foreign transnational subsidiaries in developing countries: The case of electronics in Thailand," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 1335-1356, November.
    11. Zahra, Shaker & Sisodia, Rajendra & Matherne, Brett, 1999. "Exploiting the dynamic links between competitive and technology strategies," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 188-203, April.
    12. Bruche, Gert, 2000. "Corporate strategy, relatedness and diversification," Working Papers 13, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute of Management Berlin (IMB).
    13. Andrew M. Pettigrew, 1987. "Context And Action In The Transformation Of The Firm," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(6), pages 649-670, November.
    14. Patel, Pari & Pavitt, Keith, 1997. "The technological competencies of the world's largest firms: Complex and path-dependent, but not much variety," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 141-156, May.
    15. Stefano Valvano & Davide Vannoni, 2003. "Diversification Strategies and Corporate Coherence Evidence from Italian Leading Firms," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 23(1), pages 25-41, August.
    16. Kock, Carl J & Guillen, Mauro F, 2001. "Strategy and Structure in Developing Countries: Business Groups as an Evolutionary Response to Opportunities for Unrelated Diversification," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 10(1), pages 77-113, March.
    17. Basant, Rakesh, 1997. "Technology strategies of large enterprises in Indian industry: Some explorations," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(10), pages 1683-1700, October.
    18. Breschi, Stefano & Lissoni, Francesco & Malerba, Franco, 2003. "Knowledge-relatedness in firm technological diversification," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 69-87, January.
    19. Chris Freeman & Luc Soete, 1997. "The Economics of Industrial Innovation, 3rd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 3, volume 1, number 0262061953, December.
    20. Argyres, Nicholas S., 1995. "Technology strategy, governance structure and interdivisional coordination," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 337-358, December.
    21. Paulo N. Figueiredo, 2003. "Learning, capability accumulation and firms differences: evidence from latecomer steel," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 12(3), pages 607-643, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mahdi Salehi & Seyed Hamed Fahimifard & Grzegorz Zimon & Andrzej Bujak & Adam Sadowski, 2022. "The Effect of CO 2 Gas Emissions on the Market Value, Price and Shares Returns," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Onufrey, Ksenia & Bergek, Anna, 2021. "Transformation in a mature industry: The role of business and innovation strategies," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    3. Appolloni, Andrea & Chiappetta Jabbour, Charbel Jose & D'Adamo, Idiano & Gastaldi, Massimo & Settembre-Blundo, Davide, 2022. "Green recovery in the mature manufacturing industry: The role of the green-circular premium and sustainability certification in innovative efforts," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohamad Reza Sanaei & Farzad Movahedi Sobhani, 2018. "Information technology and e-business marketing strategy," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 185-196, September.
    2. Petralia, Sergio & Balland, Pierre-Alexandre & Morrison, Andrea, 2017. "Climbing the ladder of technological development," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 956-969.
    3. Quintana-Garci­a, Cristina & Benavides-Velasco, Carlos A., 2008. "Innovative competence, exploration and exploitation: The influence of technological diversification," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 492-507, April.
    4. Kiamehr, Mehdi, 2017. "Paths of technological capability building in complex capital goods: The case of hydro electricity generation systems in Iran," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 215-230.
    5. Hansen, Ulrich Elmer & Lema, Rasmus, 2019. "The co-evolution of learning mechanisms and technological capabilities: Lessons from energy technologies in emerging economies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 241-257.
    6. Dutrénit, Gabriela & Natera, José Miguel & Puchet Anyul, Martín & Vera-Cruz, Alexandre O., 2019. "Development profiles and accumulation of technological capabilities in Latin America," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 396-412.
    7. Cusmano, Lucia & Morrison, Andrea & Rabellotti, Roberta, 2010. "Catching up Trajectories in the Wine Sector: A Comparative Study of Chile, Italy, and South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 1588-1602, November.
    8. Gambardella, Alfonso & Giuri, Paola & Luzzi, Alessandra, 2007. "The market for patents in Europe," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1163-1183, October.
    9. Peerally, Jahan Ara & Santiago, Fernando & De Fuentes, Claudia & Moghavvemi, Sedigheh, 2022. "Towards a firm-level technological capability framework to endorse and actualize the Fourth Industrial Revolution in developing countries," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    10. Fagerberg, Jan & Srholec, Martin & Verspagen, Bart, 2010. "Innovation and Economic Development," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 833-872, Elsevier.
    11. Iizuka, Michiko & Soete, Luc, 2011. "Catching up in the 21st century: Globalization, knowledge & capabilities in Latin America, a case for natural resource based activities," MERIT Working Papers 2011-071, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    12. Iammarino, Simona & Padilla-Pérez, Ramon & von Tunzelmann, Nick, 2008. "Technological Capabilities and Global-Local Interactions: The Electronics Industry in Two Mexican Regions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1980-2003, October.
    13. Szirmai, Adam, 2012. "Proximate, intermediate and ultimate causality: Theories and experiences of growth and development," MERIT Working Papers 2012-032, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    14. Giovanni Dosi & Marco Grazzi & Daniele Moschella, 2017. "What do firms know? What do they produce? A new look at the relationship between patenting profiles and patterns of product diversification," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 413-429, February.
    15. Mariane Santos Françoso & Ron Boschma & Nicholas Vonortas, 2024. "Regional diversification in Brazil: The role of relatedness and complexity," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), March.
    16. Angelica Sbardella & Andrea Zaccaria & Luciano Pietronero & Pasquale Scaramozzino, 2021. "Behind the Italian Regional Divide: An Economic Fitness and Complexity Perspective," LEM Papers Series 2021/30, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    17. Pérez, Carlota, 2001. "Technological change and opportunities for development as a moving target," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), December.
    18. Ghazinoory, Sepehr & Hoshdar, Fatemeh & Nozari, Maryam, 2022. "Alignment of technology development plans in the oil industry of developing countries: The case of Iran," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    19. Yu-Shan Chen & Ke-Chiun Chang, 2012. "Using the entropy-based patent measure to explore the influences of related and unrelated technological diversification upon technological competences and firm performance," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 90(3), pages 825-841, March.
    20. Wadho, Waqar & Goedhuys, Micheline & Chaudhry, Azam, 2019. "Young innovative companies and employment creation, evidence from the Pakistani textiles sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 139-152.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:122:y:2017:i:c:p:243-252. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.