Developing a Conceptual Framework for Strategic Technology Management Using ISM and MICMAC Methodology

The Automotive Industry has been one of the sunrise industries in India and is poised to enhance its contribution from 5 per cent of GDP in 2006 to 10 per cent by 2016. With the liberalization and globalization process which started in 1991, the industry is in the process of transforming itself from being a ‘Job order fulfiller’ to being an ‘Integrated Organisation’. Most automobile and auto-component players in India have chosen the path of attempting to progress on operational/manufacturing capabilities. For advancing on technology capability dimension, they mostly relied on international collaborations. Without a holistic framework of Strategic Technology Management (STM), most of the collaboration has been of limited help and many players are progressing very slowly on technology capability. The key objective of this article is to review the situation related to STM in the industry and evolve a macro level conceptual framework for STM. For this purpose, we did extensive fieldwork and used the methodologies like Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and MICMAC, as they help in identifying the linkages, hierarchies and levels of various enablers of STM and thus provide insights into the complex issue. Factors for STM were evolved from literature survey and expert opinion. A key contribution of the article is evolving a conceptual framework for STM in emerging economy context. The conceptual framework can act as a valuable guide for leaders of the automotive and other industries to think and decide about the future path they need to take to succeed in the emerging era.