A technology management strategy selection method for firms in joint venture partnerships

This paper demonstrates how a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process approach can be used to determine technology management strategies for firms in partnerships that result in their sustained technological development. Firms with resource constraints tend to form venture partnerships with technologically advanced partners for indirect strategic benefits. In such partnerships, technology management strategies of host firms need to be manoeuvred strategically as they build local capabilities. Selection of technology management strategy is generally based on subjective judgements that use fuzzy data analysed under multiple decision criteria. Considering the degree of technological contribution from the source firm, technological competency of the host firm, and dominance of the partners as well as the clarity of roles between partners as decision factors, this paper demonstrates how to determine the optimal technology management strategy. The different technological stages of a real firm are analysed in order to illustrate the application of the proposed approach.