Strategic Management of Technological Learning

217 Pages·2000·2.727 MB·English

by  Elias G Carayannis

STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT of
TECHNOLOGICAL
LEARNING
Learning to Learn and Learning to
Learn-How-to-Learn as Drivers of
Strategic Choice and Firm Performance
in Global, Technology-Driven Markets
Titles in the Technology Management Series
Series Editor Richard C. Dorf
The Strategic Management of Technological Learning
Elias G. Carayannis
Ethics, Tools and the Engineer
Raymond Spier
STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT of
TECHNOLOGICAL
LEARNING
Learning to Learn and Learning to
Learn-How-to-Learn as Drivers of
Strategic Choice and Firm Performance
in Global, Technology-Driven Markets
By
Elias G. Carayannis, PhD, MBA, BScEE
Associate Professor of Management Science
and
Director of Research on Science, Technology,
Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
European Union Center
School of Business and Public Management
George Washington University
CRC Press
Boca Raton London New York Washington, D.C.
3741/ FM**/F.5 Page 4 Wednesday, October 11, 2000 4:36 PM
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carayannis, Elias G.
Strategic management of technological learning / by Elias G. Carayannis
p. cm. — (Technology management series)
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 0-8493-3741-0 (alk. paper)
1. Organization learning. 2. Technological innovations--Study and
teaching—Management. 3. Employees—Training of—Management.. I. Title.
II. Series. III. Technology management series (CRC Press)
HD58.82 .C37 2000
658.3′124—dc21 00-057165
CIP
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International Standard Book Number 0-8493-3741-0
Library of Congress Card Number 00-057165
Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
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ΕΝ ΟΙ∆Α, ΟΤΙ ΟΥ∆ΕΝ ΟΙ∆Α
ΣΩΚΡΑΤΗΣ ΣΩΦΡΟΝΙΣΚΟΥ
I know one thing, that
I know nothing
Socrates
Zum sehen geboren;
zum schauen bestellt
Born to see;
meant to Look
Goethe Faust
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3741/ FM**/F.5 Page 7 Wednesday, October 11, 2000 4:36 PM
Preface
The purpose of this work is to isolate and better understand strategic decision-making
frameworks as they are used in practice; and the role that feedback and learning
processes play in reaching a decision within an entrepreneurial or strategic invest-
ment decision context and in technologically intensive, dynamic, and uncertain
environments. It starts from a continuing schism between two diverging perspectives
or schools of decision making. According to Schoen (1983, p. 237), the first is the
view that “the manager is a technician;” the second is that “the manager is a
craftsman.” By following the Hegelian approach of thesis, antithesis, synthesis
(Dewey, 1917, p. 71), we attempt to outline a third alternative to the two prevalent
and conflicting schools of decision making, namely, the analytic or synoptic vs. the
experiential or incremental school. This third alternative consists of the metacogni-
tive Paradigm and the strategic or active incrementalism framework of decision
making (Carayannis, 1992a, 1993, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c).
We formulate our third proposed alternative following a hybrid of the hypothet-
ico-deductive and the inductive approaches to developing new insights and knowl-
edge in the area of strategic decision making. We rely on both a review of the current
divergent theories of decision making as they apply to an entrepreneurial/strategic
investment decision context and the findings from our field research with several
technologically driven enterprises. Thus, we attempt to identify empirically the
presence of strategic incrementalism within the context of the strategic management
of technology, through in-depth–interview-driven, ethnographic case studies of
13 companies from four industries (process, automotive manufacturing, aerospace,
and power generation) headquartered in the United States, Canada, Germany, and
France. The firms studied operate in business environments of high risk and/or
uncertainty, very dynamic conditions (due to intensity of competition and/or tech-
nological complexity), and technological intensity (where technology has strategic
import, and in many cases one has to “bet the company” when deciding for or against
a certain project or technology).
The study was designed to cover at least three companies from each of three
major sectors of industrial activity (transport manufacturing, process, and power
generation sectors). Included are at least two business cycles, with products of
short-, medium-, and long-term development and life cycles; and with domestic
and international operations. Moreover, the firms studied are from four very com-
petitive markets (industrial materials, health care products, automotive manufactur-
ing, and aerospace), and one regulated market (nuclear power generation) used as
the control group.
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Specifically, the firms studied are as follows:
Industries and Corporations of Research Focus
Industry Country Corporation
Process industries United States Bristol-Myers Squibb Inc.
Germany Bayer AG
France Compagnie De Saint Gobain SA
Automotive manufacturing Germany BMW AG
Germany Daimler-Benz AG
France Matra Automobile SA
Aerospace France Airbus Industrie SA
Power generation United States Consolidated Edison Inc.
United States Rochester Gas & Electric Inc.
United States Tennessee Valley Authority
United States Duke Power Inc.
Canada Ontario Hydro Ltd.
France Electricité de France
The literature review and the empirical findings are synthesized to develop an
organizational architecture of multiple-level technological learning (strategic or
learning to learn how to learn from experience, tactical or learning how to learn
from experience, and operational or learning from experience), that is the strategic
management of technological learning (SMOTL). SMOTL is analyzed and discussed
as the engine for building firm core competencies and sustainable competitive advan-
tage, and an empirically validated philosophy and practice of strategic technology
management.
The SMOTL framework for studying and interpreting firm behavior may lead
to a new and emerging theory of the firm, one built around the strategic management
of organizational knowledge and technological learning (Carayannis, 1992a, 1993,
1994, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c, 1996, 1996a, 1997, 1998, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c, 1998d,
1998e, 1998f, 1998g, 1998h, 1999, 1999a, 1999b, 1999c, 1999d, 1999e).
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Acknowledgment/Dedication
Στη´ν Μη´τε´ρα µου
(To My Mother)
and to the following people who really made this work possible:
Mr. Jeffrey Alexander, Vice President and Director of Research, Washington
CORE; Mr. Marc Aubert, Manager Associate President/VIP Programme, Airbus
Industrie SA; Mr. Jean-Louis Caussin, Technical Director, Matra Automobile SA;
Dr. Richard Elander, Senior Vice President, Research and Development, Bristol-
Myers Squibb Inc.; Mr. Friedrich Hujer, Board of Management Member,
Bayer/AGFA-Gevaert AG; Mr. Eberhard von Kuenheim, Chairman (Retired), BMW
AG; Dr. George Laidlaw, Operations Manager, BASF Corp.; Mr. Edzard Reuter,
Chairman (Retired), Daimler-Chrysler AG; Mr. Siegfried Schlesinger, BASF Corp.;
Dr. Manfred Schneider, Chairman Bayer AG; Dr. Dieter Stein, President, BASF
Corp.; Mr. Eggert Voscherau, Vice President BASF Corp.; Mr. Wolfgang Wehmann,
Engineering and Services Manager, BASF Corp.; Mr. Mark Yogman, Head of Stra-
tegic Planning, Bayer Corp.
Elias G. Carayannis
George Washington University