TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY IN NETWORKS

This paper is based on a research program which aims to increase our u nderstanding of how companies manage their technology. The research ha s led to ideas on the 'company technological system'. This is the mech anism by which a company acquires its own technologies, as well as gai ning access to those of other companies and by which it applies these technologies to specific or generic customer needs. Central to the ide a of the technological system is the function of the firm in combining technological resources from a variety of sources for specific applic ations, In other words, we recognize the importance of the technologic al resources that are owned or controlled by other actors. In this way , the firm is characterized not only by the configuration of its own t echnology, but in addition by its relationships with and linkages to t he systems - or discrete technologies - of others. This means that a m eaningful technology strategy is inevitably a network strategy. The pa per explores the link between technology system, strategy and network dynamics and illustrates this briefly by using illustrations drawn fro m research into the use of suppliers as sources of distinctive technol ogical competence.