The evolution and use of a policy and research tool: assessing the technological capabilities of firms

Abstract

Firms differ widely in their technological capabilities. Innovation policies are likely to be more or less successful depending upon the level of such abilities of those firms to which a policy is aimed. Without data on the proficiencies, strengths and weaknesses of firms within the target group(s), the construction and application of innovation or industrial policies are likely to miss salient factors in the ability of firms to benefit from the support that is intended. An in-depth knowledge of firms’ capabilities can allow policy-makers to target support according to the specific needs of firms. This paper describes the Technology capability audit tool (or CAT) that was designed to assist policy-makers in differentiating between firms and in understanding their level of ‘innovation readiness’. Examples of the use of the CAT are presented from South Korea, Thailand, Ireland, Brazil and the UK.

Keywords:

• technology and innovation studies
• technological capabilities
• audit tool
• science and technology and innovation policy studies

Notes on contributor

Howard Rush is Professor of Innovation Management at CENTRIM (Centre for Research in Innovation Management), University of Brighton. His research focuses on the development of innovation capabilities, Innovation management in complex products and systems; benchmarking of science and technology policy; development of firm-level innovation management tools; evaluations of research and technology institutes, socio-economic forecasting. John Bessant is Research Director and Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at The Business School, Exeter University. He was awarded a Fellowship with the Advanced Institute for Management Research and was also elected a Fellow of the British Academy of Management. He has acted as advisor to various national governments and to international bodies including the United Nations, The World Bank and the OECD.

Mike Hobday is Visiting Professor at CENTRIM (Centre for Research in Innovation Management), Brighton University. His research examines how firms in East and Southeast Asia catch-up and overtake leading Western companies. He also works on innovation in high-value complex products and systems. Eoghan Hanrahan is Civil Servant working for Enterprise Ireland. He has a doctorate from CENTRIM, University of Brighton. Mauricio Zuma Medeiros is Executive Director of the Foundation for Scientific and Technological Development in Health at Fiotec, Brazil; coordinating the New Aseptic Fill-finish Facility Project of Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz. He has a doctorate from SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research) at the University of Sussex.

Notes

1. These and other influences on the tool's theoretical underpinnings are elaborated on by Rush, Bessant,and Hobday (2007).

2. The audit results were also made available to and used by other local policy analysts who put forth their own specific future policy measures (see, for example, Woo and Sul 2001).

3. Bessant, Rush, and Hobday (2001) stress that policy-making also need to take into account at least four other important factors which impact on firm performance and opportunities: these include: (a) the impact of indirect or ‘implicit’ technology policies (e.g. educational, trade, competition, economic and industrial); (b) other non-policy conditions facing firms (e.g. the macroeconomic context, the business cycle of particular sectors and the strengths and weaknesses of local entrepreneurial capabilities); (c) the available modes of support for firms (e.g. private sector, market-led mechanisms, government direct support and government indirect self-help support mechanisms); and (d) evidence of success (or otherwise) of technology policy initiatives in other countries.

4. http://www.brighton.ac.uk/profitnet/.

5. Chaisung Lim (pers. comm., August 16, 2013), director of the Research Institute for Global Management of Technology for Catching Up (GMOT), Miller School of the Management of Technology, Konkur University, Seoul.