Managing technological innovation for competitive advantage: A framework for assessing the relative importance of the components of technology utilized for specific activities within an organization

Technological innovation is recognized as a driving force for achieving and sustaining a competitive advantage. However, to effectively manage technological innovation within an organization, managers should have a clear understanding of the meaning of technology. Moreover, managers should be able to assess the relative importance of that technology. This dissertation research project explores the various resources available to an organization and the various perceptions of technology that exist to suggest a model that describes technology as dynamically interrelated and interacting intelligence-based human-created resource components embodying four distinctive forms: a physical tools component (technoware), a human skills component (humanware), a codified knowledge component (inforware), and a systemized methods component (orgaware). A conceptual model based on the four components of technology and the Analytic Hierarchy Process pair-wise comparison methodology is developed to demonstrate a process that managers may find useful for assessing the relative importance of the components of technology utilized for specific activities within an organization. Through a series of case examples of large organizations in different industries, the conceptual model is validated, using secondary data, to show that it can be used to assess the relative importance of the components of technology. Operationalization of the methodological framework is demonstrated, using both secondary data and collective expert judgment, to show that the relative importance of the components of technology can be different for specific activities within an organization. The implication to the practice of management is that the results from relative importance assessments can be used by managers as a significant source of guidance to make well-informed technological innovation investment decisions.