Technology Strategies of Large Enterprises in Indian Industry: Some Explorations

A firm’s technology strategy is influenced by the ‘technology regime’ in which it operates. The regime is broadly defined by a combination of variables capturing industrial structure, nature of technical knowledge and the policy environment. Together, these variables determine the opportunity and appropriability conditions faced by a frim in a well defined industry. Given these broad relationships, a heuristic framework is developed to analyze firms’ technology strategies across industry groups. Four firm level strategies are identified: (i) undertake R&D; (ii) purchase disembodied foreign technology; (iii) combine (i) and (ii); and (iv) remain technologically inactive, i.e., do neither (i) or (ii). The framework is translated into a multinomial logit model to empirically explore the determinants of technology choices made by Indian firms in two different industries: non-electrical machinery and chemicals. The impact of the following determinants is explored: firm size, capital and material imports, foreign equity participation, and foreign/domestic technology spillovers.