Ch 6 nat. & tech. envt.
- 1. Chapter 6 NATURAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
- 2. The natural and technological environments present the impulsive potential for development while the other environments like the economic, social, and political and government factors represent the propulsive potential for development.
- 3. Impulsive and Propulsive Factors Affecting Business
- 4. Given the natural and technological environments, the propulsive factors determine the extent of exploitation of the development potential and the direction, pace and pattern of development.
- 5. Innovation Innovation is a very important factor that provides competitive advantage and, consequently, determines success.
- 6. Calantone and Cooper have identified six major reasons for the new product failures.6 They are as follows. 1. The better mousetrap no one wanted 2. The me-too product meeting a competitive brick wall 3. Competitive one-upmanship 4. Environmental ignorance 5. Technological dog products 6. The price crunch
- 7. Rates of Product and Process Innovations
- 9. Innovative Drivers
- 10. ICT AND MARKETING Advances in information and communications technology are revolutionalising the modus operandi of marketing and the business system. The business horizon is humming with buzzwords like internet, world wide web (www), cyberspace, information superhighways etc. which are changing the way of contacting customers; order receiving and processing; and networking and integrating business system. The revolutionary changes being ushered in by the internet are indeed exciting.
- 11. Transfer of Technology Technology transfer is the process by which commercial technology is disseminated. This will take the form of a technology transfer transaction, which may or may not be a legally binding contract,27 but which will involve the communication, by the transferor, of the relevant knowledge to the recipient.
- 12. Levels of TT Operational Level: At the bottom level are the simplest ones, needed for operating a given plant: these involve basic manufacturing skills, as well as some more demanding troubleshooting, quality control, maintenance and procurement skills. Duplicative Level: At the intermediate level are duplicative skills, which include the investment capabilities needed to expand capacity and to purchase and integrate foreign technologies. Adaptive Level: At this Technological Self-reliance level, imported technologies are adapted and improved, and design skills for more complex engineering learned. Innovative Level: This level is characterised by innovative skills, based on formal R&D, that are needed to keep pace with technological frontiers or to generate new technologies.