Editorial
Mark Dodgson
Technology and Innovation Management Centre, University of Queensland Business School, St Lucia QLD
PP: 2
Article Text
This issue of R&D Enterprise-Asia Pacific has a balanced set of resources for technology-based commercial and research organizations conducting their business in traditional ways as well as initiating or expanding their operations via the Internet.
Greg Brush has examined the factors contributing to successful strategic alliances between small high-technology firms and their suppliers, alliances which have the potential to help such forms compete with larger, better-resourced organizations. Criteria for assessing suppliers as potential strategic partners indicate that cultural factors like trust and mutual opportunities for organizational learning are as significant as market dominance or access in many cases.
Kiminori Gemba from the University of Tokyo offers interesting research based upon the diversification of Japanese industry. This work makes it clear that the most successful diversification strategies leverage corporate investment in technology and inhouse expertise, and analysis of a company's technology portfolio provides critical inputs to diversification planning.
Christopher Bell offers some interesting insights that will help managers facing the emerging and complex challenges of leading and motivating virtual and dispersed teams. A variety of communication technologies are available to us, but not all offer the same potential for managing complexity and helping teams achieve successful outcomes. Bell's insights are useful and practical and will aid selection of media as well as managers appropriate to a given management challenge.
The 'Technology Transfer Tactics' section of this issue is dedicated to the 'hot issue' of e-Commerce. Globally, 50 million Internet users are seeking information and doing business via the web. Asia is now the most rapidly growing user group, with 21% of the world's Internet users based in the Asia Pacific, a figure expected to grow to 25% by 2005.
How e-Commerce may be used to facilitate technology transfer, research commercialization, and innovation management, particularly between countries in the APEC region, is the focus of articles by Tim Janis and Eugene Sebastian.
Janis leads with some probing questions and case studies of how the Internet is changing how technology transfer is undertaken. Sebastian uses the model of Singapore to demonstrate one APEC country's commitment to information technology, a level of commitment that is emerging throughout the region. As well as providing an interesting change model, this article also suggests some major business opportunities for technology providers.
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