Framework for the evaluation of the internal and external fit of technology strategy

Only since the mid-1980s, technologies are considered a relevant success factor for enterpris-es. Today, research and technology are the key to economic growth of a nation. In the course of this development, technology management has gained attention in literature and practice. Main task of strategic technology management is the formulation of explicit technology strat-egies. This has proven successful: several empirical studies show that enterprises with an explicit technology strategy operate more successful than competitors without an explicit technological long-term orientation. Especially nowadays, with decreasing return from tech-nological investments and increasing complexity of technological developments, long-term technological orientation becomes more important. To derive success ful technology strate-gies, they have to be adapted to the conditions of the individual enterprise. An unfitted tech-nology strategy can, removed from its context, cause as much damage as it was meant to be supportive. Empirical studies have shown that the success of different technology strategies varies with the conditions under which they are derived, e.g. the features of a specific tech-nology or the organizational and strategic context of the enterprise. Thus, technology strate-gies fitted to the requirements and conditions of an enterprise are a key success factor. There-fore, in this paper we introduce the current version of a framework to support enterprises in evaluating the fit of their technology strategy with their specific context. Context refers to the organizational, strateg ic and technological boundary conditions of an enterprise as well as its environment.