Strategic Planning for Management of Technology–An Empirical Study with Indian Steel Sectors

Indian steel industry, identified as seller’s market in the pre-liberalized era, has become buyer’s market due to import, reduced duty structure, price decontrol and delicensing. Revolutionary changes in this area have been witnessed along with fierce competitive pressure on performance, productivity, price reduction and customer satisfaction. National boundaries have melted the steel sector to encompass the increasing world market. Trade in steel products has been on upswing with the production facilities of both the developed and developing countries complementing each other in making of steel products. Smooth and quick transfer of technologies has meant an increasing competitive pressure on the companies to be ahead of the others in the race for technological superiority. Technology management in steel sector is a practice that entails classification, selection, adoption and exploitation of the technologies needed to maintain organization’s current and future survival. It includes the ability of creating mutual understanding between business and technology as a part of corporate strategic planning. Management of technology assumes great importance and finding out the factors which influence the same assumes even greater importance. In this present study, an attempt has been made to critically identify factor(s) that enhance efficiency in steel technology sector. The outcome of the study will provide a valuable insight into the evaluation and process of management of technology in a competitive market. Finally, it helps the decision maker associated with this sector operating in mature markets to formulate effective strategies for gaining overall competitive advantage.