mohammadreza arasti

The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between "knowledge relatedness" and “strategic alliance formation”. The tendency to cooperate has been increasing among companies in recent decades. Strategic alliances are considered one of the main types of cooperation. In a complex environment (especially in knowledge-based industries), there are few companies that prefer to rely only on their knowledge and technical capabilities to achieve innovation goals. It seems that the degree of relatedness of the knowledge base between two firms influences their decision to enter into a strategic alliance. Knowledge relatedness is evaluated through the complementarity or similarity of the knowledge bases. In this research, we seek to clarify the relationship between “knowledge similarity” and “alliance intensity” on the one hand, and between “knowledge complementarity” and “alliance intensity” on the other hand. For this purpose, a regression model is developed. Analyzing a sample of 121 companies from the biotechnology industry between 2005 and 2010, we found a positive relationship between knowledge complementarity and firms’ alliance intensity. While the relationship between knowledge similarity and alliance intensity is not supported.

Possessing product technologies is an inevitable necessity for a catch-up. Latecomers must strengthen their design capabilities to enter the innovation stage. A part of the design capabilities is created by developing and applying product technologies. Despite this necessity, most methods and tools for formulating technology strategy focus on process technologies (embedded in the company's value chain) and ignore product technologies. A precise conceptualization of the relationship between the product technologies and the design capabilities is also required. In this article, while separating product and process technologies, the relationship between design capabilities and product technologies is explained. Also, using the "design thinking" approach, a method for formulating a technology strategy is presented, in which both product and process technologies are considered. The implementation of the proposed method is shown with a practical example of 230-320 MW generators. Using the focus group, the validity of the method has been evaluated. The applicability of the method has been shown by implementing it in 21 subsidiaries of the Mapna group. The theoretical contribution and practical application of the research are discussed and further research is suggested.

This paper concerns innovation networks with two distinct sub-networks including knowledge and industrial sections, named dual core networks. While industrial network consists of firms involving in manufacturing and commercialization; universities, research institutes and knowledge-based SMEs are incorporated into knowledge network. Each section has its own hub which plays the role of coordinator and/or orchestrator. The stability of dual-core networks is greatly depends on the cooperation between two hubs. This research aims to identify the factors affecting the sustainability of dual-core innovation networks. For this purpose, two case studies regarding wind-turbine and thermal water desalination are analyzed as representatives of different degree of cooperation between knowledge and industrial hubs. Based on thematic analysis, the main factors and antecedents influencing networks stability have been identified and clustered in two dimensions of trust and power gap. It is also discussed that the effective role of brokers could moderate the impact of trust and power gap on the network stability. As a result, five scientific propositions are developed and explained which along with the proposed conceptual framework could be considered as starting points for further research.

The focus of this study is on how the technological capabilities of the latecomer firms accumulate in the catch-up process. Literature study suggests that no comprehensive and integrated model specifies the technological capabilities of each catch-up phase. Therefore, the present study aims to fill this research gap. The main contribution of this study is to identify the dedicated technological capabilities in each catch-up stage. By comparing and combining the current findings in the literature during the years 1980 to 2018 with the meta-synthesis method, the following question is investigated: "What are the technological capabilities at each phase of the catch-up process?" The main findings of this study include summarizing the technological capability definitions, introducing the main pillars of technological capability conceptualization, collecting various typologies of technological capability, comparing different phases of the catch-up process, extracting the hierarchical structure of technological capability, and assigning each technological capability to its dedicated phase.  Given the findings of this study and the specific contextual conditions of the firm, managers can customize this framework for improving technological capabilities. This firm-specific roadmap specifies which technological capabilities should be developed and upgraded at which time frame.

Capability is one of the core concepts in strategy literature. Moreover, it is widely used to explain why latecomer firms can’t succeed in design and development of complex systems. There has been many efforts and significant progress in regard of capability but it is conceptualization and usage in empirical researches are problematic yet. In this paper a framework for operationalization of capability concept has been developed. Using the proposed framework, the process of formation and evolution of design capability in a latecomer system integrator has been investigated through a case study. For this purpose, acquisition and improvement of knowledge, tools and skills as micro-foundations of design capability and their integration has been under focus. In addition to show usability of our proposed framework, this case study provides a better understanding of how a firm's context and motivation affects on formation and evolution of its capabilities. Results of this research, are also a good guide for managers in regard of their plans for acquisition and improvement of required micro-foundations and the way they are integrated as a capability.

System Integrator firms cannot develop all the strategic resources they need on their own, and consequently, some of them must be acquired through inter-organizational networks. Research shows that most network studies focus more on network antecedents and outputs and less on processes and related capabilities. Some researchers have made few efforts to identify and scrutinize capabilities related to business relationships. In this context, scholars have introduced “networking capability” (NC) to emphasize the network perspective. Despite the considerable conceptual and empirical richness, the existence of different nomenclatures and theoretical diversity in NC literature has led to conceptual ambiguity and a lack of consensus on this crucial concept. We have tried to cover this gap through a systematic review of related literature. A systematic review of this study includes structured screening, coding, and categorizing of concepts related to networking capabilities. This study identifies two critical components for NC: Network Development Capability (NDC) and Network Management Capability (NMC). An overview of NC conceptualizations shows that network development is often overlooked, and the network management is overemphasized. This study, while classifying the concepts in the literature under each of these categories, also provides their theoretical definition. Finally, we have identified a series of research gaps in NC studies and proposed some suggestions for future research direction.

Innovation networks are made up of individuals, firms, knowledge centers and industrial companies that work together to develop and commercialize a product or technology. The variety of activities ranging from R&D to production, commercialization and coordination among them is done by one to several hubs in the network. In networks that their mission is innovation in products with complexity in design or manufacturing, there is a need for both industrial and knowledge hubs. The lack of expert manpower, prior experience, and knowledge/industrial infrastructure simultaneously in one hub is one of the most important reasons for the need for a second hub in these networks. The purpose of this paper is to present theoretical framework of innovation networks with two hubs and clarify the formation, main members and connections. In this regard, different leadership styles in innovation networks and the need for two hubs are described, and a preliminary theoretical framework is presented. To validate theoretical framework, a case study was conducted on the Mega-Watt wind turbine network. Based on the results, the theoretical framework is revised, which could be the basis for further studies.

Despite the growing expenditure of R&D caused the development of a knowledge-based approach to economic development, no country is able to research on the edge of science and technology in all areas of research, due to the increasing diversity and the nature of the interdisciplinary activities of research and innovation and thus, priority-setting has a significant role in science, technology, and innovation policy. In this research, various dimensions (definitions, types, theoretical models, process, history, challenges and methods) of STI priority-setting have been studied. Then, Smart Specialization has been introduced as the most up-to-date strategy based on the STI priority-setting, and in the end the prioritizing experience in Iran’s comprehensive scientific map has been evaluated with a critical approach. The study indicates that all mechanisms for priority-setting are used simultaniously according to the path-dependency of priority formation, the historical stickiness of institutions, and the diffrentiated rationales behind government interventions; and the problem is the combination pattern of mechanisms. However, the overall structure of priority-setting among different countries is converging to re-emphasizing on functional priorities, systematic approach to strategy and prioritization, combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches, and division of work among various actors involving in the priority-setting proccess.

The diversity of the skills required in project management and the demand for learning them as one of the main sources of competitive advantage in organizations is growing. One of the ways to learn project management capabilities is through other organizations and people. Inter-organizational learning is the way in which different organizations in an alliance collaborate, share knowledge, and learn from one another. This research focuses mainly on project management capabilities inter-organizational learning process and also on factors affecting it. By using explorative studies, a theoretical model for project management capabilities inter-organizational learning is developed and research hypotheses are formulated based on this model. The data collected from 34 organizational units responsible for different project management functions in two international consortiums of Iran petroleum industry is analyzed and then by using the structural equation modeling, the relationships between research variables are tested. Fitting indices of the model and impact factors between variables resulted from data analysis mostly shows acceptable fit and very strong relationship between components of the model. Finally, suggestions to be used by project based organizations as well as suggestions for future studies are presented along with research results.

Automotive industry of the Iran and two major automaker, SAIPA and IRAN-KHODRO groups, have been always the central attention of the State and the Parliament. Also technology management in the massive scale was so effective and it is one of the important subjects of product architecture. During the formation of the product architecture structure, decisions for manufacturing processes and supply chain architectures will be made simultaneously. In this paper, case study research methodology is used to develop a model for the decision integration of a car manufacturing corporate for developing product and process technologies in the range of its suppliers. Preliminary data are collected from sites that involve in Iran car manufacturing corporates and wide range of interviews with managers and experts in product development strategies and suppliers. Secondary data is collected from literature review and available documents in mentioned business unit. Results show that there is a strong relation between product architecture and product and process technology policy in supply network. Product architecture has a key role in maximizing technology absorption and transfer and it also improves the level of Manufacturability of product technology unites in supply chain network. Manufacturability of a product and its technologies in new product developing projects are due to the way of products function allocation to physical parts and also the type of industrial design. Product architecture in the literature of product development is allocation of defined tasks and functions of a product to physical components. Product architecture is a general description of product characteristics classifications covering product systems, number and type of components, number and type of common areas between these components and also the presenter of fundamental structure of a product. In this article, product technology is defined as an engineering diagram or a made physical sample of a system which represent various sciences’ usage in a product function. Process technologies are also consist of technologies which are used in a firm’s systems and machines and realized their functions. Also technologies of supply chain network define supplier potency in design and manufacture of different product and process systems. The result of product architecture is design and manufacture of systems and parts along whit embedded technologies which are offered in a format of a single product. Product architecture is created by industrial design in the format of a product.
Case study
Preliminary data are collected from sites that involve in Iran car manufacturing corporates and wide range of interviews with managers and experts in product and Technology development strategies and suppliers. Secondary data is collected from literature review and available documents in mentioned business unit. In this article a qualitative approach is used in research methodology. To enhance the generalizability of the results, according to triangulation principle, this research was conducted in three stages and based on data from separate sources. While studying the history of the research and measuring experimental documentations of parent automobile firms, by means of deep and exploratory interviews with correspondents, the primary data was collected and the early version of model is designed by the method of theme analysis. The second stage of research is done after developing conceptual model in order to validate the model. The method of collecting and analyzing data in this stage had been content validity survey through correspondents. The third step of the research has been done in practice in order to subscribe the verified model.
Discussion and Research findings indicate that today product architecture is used as a platform for designing and employing technologies in product components. Indeed designing a product is designing various technologies in order to realize its functions. In this research we define collaborative technology groups as a part of technologies which are embedded and appeared in systems, sub-systems, and different components of a product and its developing processes, which realize their various functions. In other words, product technology unites are the main focus of designers and engineers to define collaborative technology groups which are designed and manufactured in supply chain network of a firm to realize products and processes functions. Indeed, physical components of products and processes indicate a particular technology mechanism. For this reason we refer to these technologies as collaborative technology groups which act based on their functions in relation with each other and they are complementary. The product section of these technologies realize the function and the process section of the groups realize performance of firm’s production systems and supply chain. Technologies such as designing, molding, casting, and manufacturing are related to these technology units.
Manufacturability of technology units in supply chain network is an important part of designing and manufacturing a product. Measurement of a product Manufacturability is done according to supply chain network potential and actual sufficiency and capabilities in manufacturing modules and also firm potential and actual sufficiency and capability in integrating different components and modules for manufacturing a product. Different analysis levels of decisions and activities exist in different stages of technology groups designing in various products and processes. While general and massive architecture and design proceeding of all product technologies is done in the firm and by final product developing group, detailed proceeding related to systems and modules technology architecture and design in different categories of supply chain network such as manufacturers, producers, and other components of supply chain is done professionally. The importance of coordination and relation between these different stages redouble the importance of purposeful architecture and design of product and process technologies in supply chain. Data analysis according to case study indicates that in order to design constructible technology groups for product, process and supply chain systems, designing of these systems and technologies should be integrated. Data analysis and collection indicate that product architecture has a significant role in partnership rate and technology transfer in the level of supply chain. If we depend on suppliers in a number of important technologies, in the processes of modeling, designing, and manufacturing of technologies and affording their parts, we should involve the suppliers in technology developing projects and associate them in decision making. Also during choosing the type of product architecture, we should consider the important components of product strategy, firm’s strategy in affording existing parts, new parts, and also manufacturing, producing, and assembling equipment. Through product architecture, the product and process technologies in supply chain are connected and shaped collaborative technology groups. The designed model in this research is recommended as a general platform for designing and producing integrated and constructible product technology unites in supply chain network of a Corporation. This article claims that it presents a new insight to integrated and constructible engineering of collaborative technology groups in supply chain network

National Innovation System (NIS) approach, that consists of different functions and institutions regarding scientific and technological development of countries, is a good approach for analyzing science, technology and innovation and proposing comprehensive policies and initiatives for enhancing innovation in a country. A review of Iran’s status at innovation indices reveals that we have a relatively bad position regarding our region countries and our Vision 1404 goals. Management of technology and Science and technology policy experts always look for an opportunity to express their views and suggestions about improving innovation and technology development status. So, we held panels with these experts to explore their views and experiences and suggest some policies for addressing science and technology challenges. In this report, we first have look at Iran’s science, technology, innovation (STI) and economic indices, then, based on "National Innovation System" approach, describe Iran’s NIS challenges and propose some policies and initiatives for removing barriers.

Technology evaluation is one of the main funtions of technology management in all corporations. It contains the assessment of product and/or process technologie's attractiveness as well as the firm's technological capabilities. The result of technology evaluation is normally used for technology strategy formulation. Despite the importance of technology strategy at corporate level which includes investment priorities of corporation, its subsidiaries and the supplier's network in the field of technology, almost all of technology evaluation models and frameworks are designed for single companies and dont consider the situation of suppliers. However, the motives and capabilities of supply chain regarding the development/acquisition and implementation of new technology in the end product should be taken into account by corporations. Otherwise, new product development process at corporate level might fail or become successful in term of time and cost. In this paper, we propose a conceptual model for evaluation of technologies which integrates corporation and it supplier's motives and capabilities regarding a specific technology. By reviewing the literature, interviewing experts from automative industry and then using thematic analysis method, the first draft of proposed model is conceived. The model is subsequently verificated and validated through a focus group. Finally, the applicability of model is confirmed via two case studies.

The aim of this paper is to describe the governmental intervention points in order to encourage Iranian large firms to pursue catch up process through innovation. Large firms play a significant role in economic development. The growth rate of these companies depends on their innovation capabilities. It is difficult for governments to deal with capability development within a firm, they should therefore provide appropriate incentives and opportunities to indirectly promote it. For this purpose, a conceptual framework is developed and presented. By interviewing top managers of large companies and experts from Steel, Pharmaceutical, Power Generation and Car industries of Iran, the proposed framework is enhanced and supported. Although, policies are normally contextual and may differ from one to another industry; some horizontal policies which are common among different industries are revealed and clustered by employing thematic analysis. According to this investigation, provoking the demand side, balancing the bargaining power, financially supporting R&D and innovation activities, trying to remove or reduce the effect of international sanctions and helping the companies to improve their design, implementation and commercialization capabilities are the five major elements which should be considered by the Iranian government.

Today many of the large and infrastructure projects in the world are turning into learning battlefields and a growing number of organizations participate in such projects to improve their knowledge and capabilities. Not to manage properly, there are several factors that hinder knowledge transfer and learning opportunities in these projects. This research aims to identify key factors affecting project management inter-organizational Knowledge transfer in Iran petroleum international consortiums and to provide a conceptual model for it. Having an explorative and qualitative approach, a 3stage Delphi method is conducted with the contribution of 18 experts from Iran petroleum industry. 22 factors are explored in this research and the most important factors like: "the higher maturity of foreign partner in project management", "local partner level of intention and motivation to acquire PM knowledge from foreign partner" and "tie strength between Corresponding Author: partners" are prioritized as the top 10. Comparison with previous research findings, a couple of new revealed factors, and several practical and theoretical suggestions are also discussed in this paper.

With the increasing complexity of products and the necessity for development, today’s products, processes and also the relevant technologies, are planned, designed and finally manufactured with the participation of suppliers in the wide range of the corporation’s supply chain. The lack of attention of corporations to the technological capabilities of the supply chain has made them to experience different problems for implementing the product development strategies as well as process. This paper tries to design an integrated model for formulation of strategy of technology for product in the supply chain according to the technological capabilities of its suppliers. The research is conducted with the qualitative approach in two stages. First of all, after literature review and studying the documentation of automotive companies, the preliminary data is gathered through in depth interviews with the panel of experts of Iranian automotive industry and then the collected data is analyzed by using the Theme methodology. So, based on the identified themes and exploring the relations between them, a conceptual model is designed. At the second phase, the validity and reliability of the designed model, are studied and confirmed using the methodology of focus group with a number of other panel of experts of the industry. The designed model makes it possible for corporations to codify the strategy of technology with the participation of supply chain, seamlessly.

Technology planning is a very critical process in the new product and process development (NPPD). We identify technologies for doing Product and Process functions, during the planning and design of products and their manufacturing systems. Now, most companies changed to large corporations and they have an extensive supply chain networks. So we can not planning of technologies with old instruments and it is important to designing a model to coverage this gap. In the new context, manufacturability assessment is very important in the technology planning, because, it has critical effect at product quality, and time to market. In this new condition, we need suitable and integrated instruments. The purpose of this article, is the designing a model for integrated and strategic planning of manufacturable technologies groups in the supply chain networks of a corporation. The approach of the research method is qualitative. In this way, we collected secondary data bye literature review and exist document at Iran automotive firms. Primary data have collected by in-depth interviews with experts by intended sampling. As well as, collected data analyzed by using thematic analysis. Then, the model is mapped based on research findings. Next, the validation and verification of designed model is approved by using of focus group and descriptive case study methods. This paper claims that has an engineering perspective to technology planning at the supply chain networks.

Network failure is one of the factors explaining the failure of innovation systems، which in comparison with other factors، has been less studied. In general، networks may fail in two ways: a) weak failure which means that they fail in the initiation phase، b) strong failure which means that they fail in keeping the network stable. System failure is one of the most important rationales for government intervention. However، it is not clear that how government can intervene، due to the lack of deep understanding of the phenomenon. In this article، the process of weak failure of engineered innovation networks has been analysed in detail by using process and exploratory-descriptive approach. The validity and applicability of the conceptual model، which is generated is tested in a single in-depth case study. The results are showing that networks become unstable because of two reasons: disappearance of trust among the members of the network، which leads to the members losing their incentives to be involved in the networks. These two factors، might be the results of main activities of network creation، which are member selection، structure design، formalization of relationships and network governance. The conceptual framework، which is developed in this article shows how these four main blocks could cause the network failure through hurting the trust and damaging the incentives of network members. In the last half of the paper، the failure mechanisms of innovation networks in the gas industry in Iran are explained through the application of proposed conceptual framework.

Competitive challenges have made it a critical need for industries to identify and choose enabling future technologies; furthermore The importance of defining a direction for an industry and the necessity of prioritizing technological investments in different subsectors demonstrate the significance of technology planning at industry level. A survey at the researches conducted in the field of technology planning at industry level shows that the methodologies employed in most researches are either extended methods of technology planning at firm level or derived from a change in the framework of technology policy making at national level. In this paper, by adopting a qualitative approach and grounded theory method and using semi-structure interviews with 40 people of academic and industrial experts from oil & gas, auto making and aerospace industry we have presented a three-level model for technology planning at industry level. At the reference level, main guidelines of technology development are chosen, and at the portfolio level, technology area portfolios that best meet the main requirements of the system are defined. At the option level of the model, the technology options that have the potential to reach the desired functional goals are selected. In the following parts of the paper and after an analysis of the extended model, recommendations for further research are accordingly presented.

Structural and environmental complexity and also Competitive challenges make priotrizing of technology development so critical for policy makers، managers and industries planner. Although the necessity of this subject has been mentioned in literature، but there is not any specific process for technology planning at industry level. because of This theoretical gap، researches uses the technology planning models of firm level or policy making models of national level for identifying and selecting the key technologies of an industry، that both of these approaches have some deficiencies. In this paper with the aid of qualitative approach and using grounded theory methodology we propose a model consist of three level for industry technology planning. The high priorities of technology development are determined in macro level of model. In meso level the portfolio of technology areas select to respond to the critical requirement of system. In micro level، we select the technology alternatives which have the potential of responding to performance targets. After analyzing the proposed model، we suggest some research themes for future working.