COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES AND NEW TECHNOLOGY - AN EMPIRICAL-INVESTIGATION IN THE UK POLYMER PROCESSING-INDUSTRY

This paper examines how companies can achieve competitive advantage by fitting their business strategies to the way in which new technology implementation is managed. In particular, the inter-relationship betwe en strategy, technology and performance is examined. Five strategic ty pes and seven types of technological objectives were used to find comb inations which were associated with high performance. It was found tha t companies pursuing a prospector strategy (a strategy based on produc t innovation) combined with technological objectives emphasizing marke ting, image and technical development were the highest performing grou p of companies. The fewest performing companies were those where strat egy was dominated by price competition. The general conclusion of the paper is that, in order to achieve competitive advantage, companies ne ed to see technology objectives as an inherent part of strategy. The s tudy was carried out on a sample of twenty companies within the polyme r processing industry, but the findings should be applicable to compan ies in other industries, and particularly to smaller companies.