Technology competencies in competitive environment

Although prior studies suggest that technology competencies play a significant role in firm innovation and competitiveness, what and how technology competencies interacted with competitive environment affect firm innovation has not been fully understood. This paper fills this research gap through a questionnaire survey of 165 firms together with a number of interviews drawn from the Taiwan's information and communication technology (ICT) industry. The results suggest that capabilities of exploring or exploiting technological opportunities, core technology capability, and autonomy of R&D decisions are particularly important to firm innovation in a highly competitive environment, whereas over commitments to existing technologies may constrain a firm's innovation especially in such environment. Moreover, different types of competitive environment require different types of technological competencies to enhance firm innovativeness. This paper contributes to the existing theory by examining the joint effect of technology competency and competitive environment on a firm's innovation.