Date of Award

1996

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Management (Business Administration)

First Advisor

Nathan Bennett

Abstract

Technological innovation is an important consideration to many strategic managers and thus is important to research in Strategic Management. Deepening the field's understanding of what technology is and how it works can be facilitated by participating in a growing dialogue between the Strategic Management and Management of Technology communities. This dissertation considers elements of both fields and examines the premise that at the industry level, incumbents act to manipulate the "share of mind" or "cognitive legitimacy" of the performance and cost/price characteristics of product-technology innovations that, in aggregate, portend to either enhance or destroy prevailing industry competences. A forecasting technique well-known to technological communities (Morphological Analysis) is used to dissect technologies and competences, dimensionalize competence enhancement and destruction, and test hypotheses. Major findings suggest that: Morphological Analysis has great potential as a tool for aiding academic research in technological change; technologies were evolving in the chosen industry much as the Strategic Management and Management of Technology literatures predicted; and in the experimental setting, the depiction of this evolution in the public media showed a bias towards newsworthiness, but otherwise portrayed the new industry activity accurately. However, interpretations suggested that one phenomenologically distinct technological trajectory was likely to become established in the short-term, despite the finding that this trajectory was not necessarily the most rational socioeconomic choice.

ISBN

9780591035223

Pages

258

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.6206

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