Technology adaptation in Indian chemical and engineering enterprises having collaboration with French enterprises - a comparative study

Abstract

Technology innovation has been central to the growth of the economies of the industrialized countries. Technology innovation has therefore been extensively researched. In case of the newly industrializing countries, lacking in capital and other resources to invest in the infrastructure for technology innovation, adaptation of imported technology is seen as more viable path to economic growth. Many scholars attribute the rapid economic growth of Japan to its ability in adapting the imported technology to its needs. Unfortunately, technology adaptation has not received the attention of the scholars of the industrialized and also of the industrializing countries. Most studies on international transfer of technology refer to technology adaptation only in passing. As a consequence, there is practically very little empirical data on technology adaptation. The theorization on technology adaptation has therefore tended to be speculative. This research is an attempt at understanding the nature of the technology adaptation in continuous process chemical and engineering industries were selected as representing the two types of technologies. The choice of the two diverse industries was to investigate the validity of the hypothesis that the inherent technological characteristics of a technology influence the nature of technology adaption. The research sought answer to three questions: 1) What is the content of technology adaptations? 2) What is the organizational process in technology adaptations? 3) What is the influence of technology characteristics on the nature of technology adaptations? Forty-nine collaborations between the Indian and the French enterprises were identified in the two industries based on published information. A questionnaire was sent to these enterprises and six collaborations; three in chemical using continuous process technology and three in engineering using batch process technology were selected for in-depth study. Data were collected from the inception to the post-implementation phase of the six collaborations; three in engineering using batch process technology were selected for in-depth study. A five stage model of technology transfer was developed based on the six studies to provide a framework for analysis of technology adaptations across industries. Twelve broad categories of reasons for adaptions were identified from the perspective of the decision makers of the transferee enterprise. The single most dominant reason for adaptation was on account of lower scale of production in the Indian enterprises compared to the French enterprises. Poor quality and non-availability of the components/intermediates, and technological backwardness was the next most dominant reason. The study suggests a classification of the nature of technological interdependence based on Thompson’s (1967) concept of task interdependence as possible explanation for the differences in the characteristics of a technology. The study suggests that the type of task interdependence between two technology tasks is influenced by the nature of the technology. It is hypothesized that technologies which exhibit high integrated-pooled and physically-linked sequential interdependencies, the number of technology adaptations would be lower and the technology adaptation process would be different from technologies which exhibit simple-pooled and simple-sequential interdependencies. The study argues that the high capital intensity, the quantum (enblock) capacity creation process, and the nature of interdependence of continuous process chemical technologies vis-à-vis batch process engineering technologies as the reasons for the phenomenon. Another finding of the study was that the sequence of technology adaptations was process changes followed by product changes. This finding is contrary to the sequence of technology innovations suggested in the research literature. An explanation for this finding is suggested in terms of product life cycle and the focus of the transferee enterprise. The research revealed that organizational processes in strategic and operational adaptations were significantly different. Organizational adaptations were significantly different. Organizational experience in the same or closely related area was seen as an important variable influencing the adaptation processes. The study suggests a typology of technology adaptation processes based on the type of adaptation and the experience of the organization. The study develops models for organizational learning processes for these four broad categories. The study suggested implications of these findings for the Government policies and enterprise strategies and recommends measures which would help in efficient technological learning and developmental processes.