The impact of technology management capability and strategy type on firm performance: An inverstigation in the manufacturing sector

Organizations' goals for improving their performance and intense global competition lead to managers and researchers to focus on the elements that impact superior performance. The studies on effective methods and capabilities to gain competitive advantage suggest that it is crucial to develop competencies and strategies that are compatible with the rapidly changing environmental conditions, so-called dynamic capabilities. In this context, technology management capability is identified as a dynamic capability. Despite the fact that technology and strategy are considered to be important elements to achieve business objectives and gain competitive advantage, it is a hard task for businesses to adapt to the environmental changes because of the rapid advances in technology. The key factor to adapt to the rapidly developing and changing technology for firms lays in improving their technological capabilities. The field of technology management, which has been developing for over half a century as an academic discipline, focuses on the identification of processes and frameworks that will help organizations to systematically manage the technology resources. Several conceptual studies suggest that technology management activities enhance firms' performance however despite limited empirical support. Besides that, it seems crucial that technology should be managed with consistent strategies. In this context, the main purpose of the study is to examine the effect of technology management capability and strategy type on firm performance. The manufacturing sector was chosen for the field study due to its significant share in the development of a nation's economy. The data were collected from a sample of manufacturing companies operating in Adana and Mersin, both in the south of Turkey. A five-point Likert questionnaire is the main instrument for the data collection. Based on the data obtained from 119 companies, findings support that there is a significant impact of technology management capability on firm performance. The finding of a moderately positive relationship between technology management capability and performance indicates that the performance level of technology management activities will lead to an increase in the firm performance. A significant relationship is also found between the Miles and Snow's (1978) four strategy types and the technology management capabilities. One of the interesting findings of the study is that the most common type of strategy in the manufacturing companies is the reactors and that they have achieved higher performance than firms that implement defensive strategies.