TECHNOLOGY ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT

Technology analysis is a new field of knowledge aimed at creating a fuller understanding of the technological setting within which business operates. It provides a macro‐discipline and is specifically aimed at improving the effectiveness of management of technology. As such it is of direct relevance to R&D management. The essential tools of technology analysis constitute a set of analytical frameworks covering aspects such as: (i) a common approach to describing individual technological artefacts, (ii) a taxonomy of technologies, (iii) a classification of technological trends, (iv) a chart of technological limits, and (v) a socio‐technical preference profile. These frameworks help the R&D manager to dissect and debate typical R&D management problems such as: (i) selecting R&D projects, (ii) setting broad R&D objectives in the case of a given project and (iii) setting specific R&D goals to meet the said objectives. The frameworks also help the R&D manager to portray and present research achievements within a simple and intuitively appealing framework. Copyright © 1990, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved