Shifting the strategic paradigm: the case of the catalytic converter

Abstract

The formulation and implementation of technology strategies by firms are closely and critically interrelated with the rate and direction of technological advance. Policy has an increasingly important role in this technology strategy process, such as in the provision of increasingly stringent guidelines for paths of developement, as in the case of environmental legislation on the reduction of undesiable automotive exhaust emissions. Drawing on evidence from the automotive industry, with a particular focus on catalytic converter technology, this paper considers the paradigmatic qualities of firms' technology strategies. It examines aspects of shifts in strategic paradigms and their technological and organizational effects. It is particularly concerned with the interrelation between firm strategy and government policy, and the integration of environmental pressures into the firms processes that ultimately determine paths of technological development and competitive performance in the automotive industry.