China's Manufacturing Enterprises Product-oriented Technology Integration Mechanism

There is no any company or industry can completely have all resources which are needed in technological innovation in an era of economic globalization.With the rapid development of technology and the increasingly competitive environment,how to select a suitable technology and effective integration in order to respond quickly to the market,has become critical to a company to generate competitive advantages.Since the Reform and Open Policy launched in 1978,the technological capability of Chinese companies has been improved through technology transfer.However,there are still many companies fall into the vicious circle of "transfer-lagging-transfer again-lagging further behind." Why does it exist?Iansiti has made pioneering contributions to technology integration.Following Iansiti's research,many scholars have studied the importance,effective patterns of technology integration,and so on.Since of the difference of development base of manufacturing companies and industries,institutions,the personnel quality,and cultural background between China and Western countries,there are maybe limitations to apply foreign research results directly in China.Current Chinese research on technology integration focuses on the discussion of latest theory and concepts,and the necessity and importance of technology integration.There is not enough research on technology integration at the enterprise level,especially that on how to do technology integration effectively and continuously.These aspects are urgent to do analysis and empirical research in depth.This is what this paper is pursuing,in order to provide theoretical guidance for our manufacturing practice of technology integration.Based on the current research results on technology integration,this research at first integrates theories of innovation management,system management,knowledge management,organization learning and dynamic capabilities,to define the concept and content of technology integration in this research.Then case studies are used to explore the dynamic patterns of technology integration,and analyze the key elements and environmental support elements in technology integration.The empirical research is conducted to investigate the environmental support elements and examine the direct and indirect impact of technological capabilities to integration on the performance of technology integration.Technology integration is a process that based on market-oriented strategy;a company selects,refines,and creatively integrates all current skills and knowledge to develop a new product.This research enriches studies on technology integration in the following three perspectives. At first,based on the technology integration cases of Haler,Supcom,and Netac, this research proposes a 'platform - product - platform' multi-cycling dynamic technology integration model.Through every cycling process,companies move to a new technology platform.According to the interaction and sequence of three stages in the process of technology integration,this research reveals three patterns of technology integration:P pattern,T pattern,and parallel pattern,which expands the Iansiti's research results on technology integration of single product development.Secondly,this research formulates a three-dimension technology integration capability framework covering the new product development capabilities,the technology accessing capabilities,and technology integration capabilities,which enhances the Iansiti's research on technology integration capabilities.Thirdly,on the basis of in-depth analyses on continuous technology integration in companies,this research reveals that market-orientation,innovation culture, integrative group,and technological learning are key elements to provide environmental support to technology integration.These four elements promote the generation and improvement of technology integration capabilities.The development of technology integration capabilities ensure the process of technology integration and increase the innovation performance.After the design of research hypotheses,definition of study variables and small sample tests,this research conducts a large-scale questionnaire research on manufacturing companies,with 398 valid respondents.Thanks to the data analysis of variance,regression analysis,correlation analysis and structural equation modeling analysis by SPSS15.0 and AMOS7.0 tools,this research investigates the role strength and mechanism of environmental support elements in technology integration.The research suggests that market-orientation,innovation culture,integrative group, technological learning and technology integration capabilities all have positive effect on the innovation performance.In addition,the technology integration capability has the largest direct and total effect on innovation performance.This research contributes to the promotion of effectiveness of technology integration in Chinese manufacturing companies,improvement of technology integration capabilities,getting rid of the trap in technology catching-up,and achieving technology leaping.Additionally,this research makes great contributions in the academic aspect,to the theories of innovation management.It brings forward to the concept of enterprise-level dynamic technology integration(EDTI),constructs a helix model of dynamic technology integration(HMDTI),and reveals the dynamic process of technology integration,as well as the interaction mechanism among elements.In specifically,this research will1.Formulate a dynamic technology integration(EDTI) model.Based on case studies and cross-case comparison,this research defines a concept of dynamic technology integration in an enterprise-level,and builds an EDTI helix model.This research extends the research objectives from the single projects or single product in the previous research to the enterprise level,and explores the dynamics of technology integration,which deepens the study of technology integration.2.Build a three-stage dynamic model of technology integration competence. Based on archival analyses and case studies,this study suggests that the process of dynamic technology integration could be divided into three stages,product constructing,technical selection and technology fusion.It enhances the research of technology integration competence.Product constructing means the introduction process of new product concept.The main purpose of product constructing is to evaluate the customer demand as well as the company's development capabilities, determine the feasibility of product development,and finally form an initial prototype of product combining the new product concept of company and customer demand. Technology selection is the process of evaluating the appropriation,cost and benefit for the optional technology and specify the technology for new product development based on monitoring the outsourcing technology and evaluating the internal technology.Fusion development is the process to access technology,assimilate, absorb and implement technology in new product development.The three-stage of technology integration capabilities is not proceeding in step by step.The stages are interactive,and sometimes simulative.In addition,the process of these three stages is distinguished in the different industries and in the different stage of enterprises.3.Reveal the dynamic mechanism and function of dynamic technology integration.This dynamic mechanism includes three aspects,product constructing, technology selection and technology fusion.Furthermore,this research investigates the influence mechanism of market orientation,innovative culture,integrative group, the technology learning on technology integration competence.Moreover,the empirical research indicates that comparing to the capacity of product constructing and technological monitoring,the capacity of technology fusion,has the greatest impact on innovation performance.It strengths the Iansiti's research on technology integration.