Title: The role of process innovation and adaptation in attaining strategic technological capability

Authors: Dorothy Leonard-Barton

Addresses: Production and Operations Management, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA 02163, USA

Abstract: This paper seeks to contribute to theory and practice by suggesting the importance of the adaptation process and by presenting some of the structural influences on that process. The argument forwarded in the paper is: competitive pressures require reciprocal innovation in both the organisations of today and in the technical systems that they develop and use. The greater the benefits to be realised from the introduction of a new technical system, the greater the amount of organisational change that should be anticipated. Successful process innovation requires management of the mutual adaptation of technology to organisation and organisation to technology during design and development.

Keywords: manufacturing strategy; process adaptation; process innovation; technology sources; technological capability; technology management; organisational change.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.1991.025891

International Journal of Technology Management, 1991 Vol.6 No.3/4, pp.303 - 320

Published online: 25 May 2009 *

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