O32 - Management of Technological Innovation and R&DReturn

In recent years, it is not only a researcher, or a developer, who is important for technology innovation, but increasingly important there have become the micro and macro environment of the institution/company. Since, many times, technology innovation requires cooperation within the business microenvironment and supportive legal, political, economic, social or environmental factors. As analogies in Japan, USA, India, or China, also the European Community has to respond adequately to this trend through supportive legislation, management, infrastructure and cooperation. The key research question of this analysis is, how big is the difference in technological innovation/patenting between developed and developing countries of the EU and why? Also, the selected issues and challenges of technological innovation and management create the input into this systemic study of technology patenting in the EU countries since 1980.

The dynamic development in all areas of business brings shorter life cycles of products, technologies, as well as organisational structures and enterprises. The critical factor of many technological changes is not the technology innovation process, but finding a new application for an existing technology (Rycroft, 2006).The form of technology planning depends on the capabilities and requirements of a specific enterprise, but also on external determinants that affect its internal technological capabilities. Within the formulation of a technology strategy (TS), it is necessary that managers adequately incorporate different dimensions and needs of own technology in TS, but also that technology elements are appropriately designed and substitutable. This article has two main goals. The first is to describe methodically the main specific features and forms of technology planning/TS through a comprehensive study of available professional literature. The second goal is to analyse the development of technology planning methods based on a bibliometrical analysis of ScienceDirect database (1823-2013).

The European Union dedicates considerable attention to research, development and innovation. Within the long-term strategy Europe 2020, Innovation Union has become one of the key initiatives. The European Union has decided to regularly monitor progress in this area through the Summary Innovation Index. The Czech Republic also pays considerable attention to research, development and innovation. The key paper is the National Innovation Strategy, approved by the Czech Government in 2011. The aim of this article is to evaluate the innovation performance of the Czech Republic by using the Summary Innovation Index 2011, which contains a total of 24 indicators. The article analyses the progress in the field of research, development and innovation achieved by the Czech Republic. The article contains an international comparison of the innovation performance of the Czech Republic with other Member States of the European Union too. It appears that the Czech Republic lags behind the European Union average especially in the patent process and funding for research, development and innovation. Greater attention should also be given to the educational system in the Czech Republic.

Integrating technology and business strategy, technology capacities with customers' needs, technology and business processes require a three-step mechanism of technology management (TM), namely integration of technology identification, implementation, and potential technology commercialization processes. TM requires creation of a functional technology network and good communication channels between strategic and technology managers, technologists and workers, and between a company and its stakeholders. This partly methodological and partly analytical study focuses on identifying the links within and between technology implementation and commercialization processes that could ensure maximum synergies and benefits for TM. Its added value also lies in the bibliometric statistics of the ScienceDirect and EBSCOhost databases (1960-2010), done for the identification of trends in TM. According to the statistics, and in terms of the development of integration aspects in TM, technology identification dominates, followed by technology commercialization, while the technology implementation phase is the least developed.

Innovation processes have become more open and complex. Large corporations and vertically integrated R&D labs are giving way to distributed networks of innovation which connect different companies and organizations into innovation ecosystems. Business and technology strategies of smaller companies and public policy should follow this trend and reconsider the roles of technology, human capital, competition policy, intellectual property, and public data in promoting the environment for open innovation. Integrating technology and business trends, technology and business strategy, technology capacities with customers' needs, technology and business processes; this requires a three-step mechanism of technology management (TM), namely integration of technology identification, implementation and potential technology commercialization processes. TM requires the creation of a functional technology network and good communication channels between strategic and technology managers, technologists and workers, and between a company and its stakeholders. This partly methodological and partly analytical study focuses on identifying the links within TM, especially in a technology identification phase and between TM and other business processes that could ensure maximum synergies and benefits for a company. Its added value also lies in the bibliometrical statistics of the ScienceDirect and EBSCOhost databases (1960 - 2010) for the identification of trends in TM.

An open technology innovation strategy can be characterised as a proactive combination of intra-institutional strengths and external opportunities of a market in order to create more complex technology solutions by exploiting capacities, capabilities and know-how of another institution (another company, university, research institution, etc.). This strategy may also postulate new market, industry, region, or culture penetration and concurrently has to require new business models. The main research questions of this article are stated as follows: What are the main drivers, key barriers, successful factors, main questions and basic typology of OI strategies in general? The issue of global innovation networks is outlined at the end of the article. The research was based on an extensive literature review, discussion with experts and several case studies (Apple, Nintendo, Nokia, etc.).

Global corporations and companies with international portfolios increasingly concentrate their activities not only on the international expansion of their products or services and global diversification of their capital portfolios, but also on an effective integration in the global value chain in all areas of their activities. This article focuses on the specific analysis of strategic business alliances, which are built on the principles of cluster organization in order to obtain higher synergic effects. This analysis is based on the intensive literature review and several case studies of an organization of different clusters with various specialisations in different areas. The main objective of the analysis is to determine clearly the characterisation and taxonomy of clusters, specific reasons for establishing/running a cluster, and the main advantages and risks of these structures in the global business environment.