JOURNAL OF TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT
Year:2013 | Volume:1 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:6

Business studies have underlined the role of market orientation and technological capability to improve an industry performance. Technological capability and market orientation are known as rare, valuable andinimitable resources which are affected by managerial perception of environmental dynamicity. It is mportant to explain the impact of managerial perception of environmental dynamicity on technological capability via mediator variable of market orientation. Environmental dynamicity focuses on complexity and volume of environmental and technological changes and market orientation emphasizes on the degree of sensitivity and response to the environmental changes. This relation is explored in this research by focusing on Iran avionics sector and verified as being a mediation relation. The results of this research shown by a structural model emphasize on the importance of changes of market needs and its dynamicity in technological capability improvement in the sectors with high rapid changes like avionics sector.

By a quick look at the performance of public research organizations of Iran it can be realized that despite extensive capabilities in technology development, many of these organizations fail in the process of technology commercialization. Thus, the main objective of this study is to present a model for explaining technology commercialization in public research institutes and providing recommendations and considerations for managers and policy makers who are involved in the development of science andtechnology system of Iran. In this research, a model is proposed for technology commercialization in public research organizations by conducting 24case studies in 6 public research institutes in Iran. The results of the study showed that the model contains 4 elements namely: Stages and activities which fulfilled during commercialization process and Internal and External Organizational Stakeholders and Factors which affected this process. The process of technology commercialization in public research organizations has 5 main phases with 15 ancillary steps. These steps are accomplished within the main phases and proceed sequentially. During the fulfillment of each step, 8 activities may be performed. In the model, technology development and documentation, negotiating and lobbying with stakeholders, marketing and marketing research, and coordination and decision making are the most important activities in comparison with the other 4 activities.

Acceptance of a technology by users is one of the most important factors for its success. In the case of weak acceptance or rejection of a technology by its users, system capabilities are reduced and the resources become waste. Additionally, the acceptance of a new technology does not happen at once. However it is a process that takes place over a long time period and its success is dependent on its Continuous usage. In this article, along with a review of literature on technology acceptance models and considering Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) variables, new variables such as customers’ habits and awareness, to which less attention is paid, have been added. Then, in order to have a better understandingof influencing variables and the present dynamism, by using dynamic modeling system and drawing Causal loop diagrams (CLD), a dynamic TAM is presented and finally a simulation is performed. Simulation results show that in order to increase the level of acceptance in electronic banking, the first step is to make the users aware of electronic banking system and its benefits to reduce their resistance toward using new banking system and technology.

Findings indicate that despite the satisfying development in conceptual and theoretical dimensions of knowledge management (KM), many organizations, have failed to implement KM successfully and effectively. Among the reasons for this failure, is incorrect understanding of organization readiness and unavailability of basic requirements for KM implementation. This article attempts to present a fuzzy decision support system to assess the organization readiness in KM acceptance. To do so, after reviewing the literature, we extracted the experience of knowledge managers and experts using fuzzy Delphi approach and quantitative algorithms such as fuzzy screening approach. In this regard, 21 sub-criteria under five basic categories for the assessment of organization readiness were suggested: cultural capacity, organizational processes and structures capacity, change management capacity, technology capacity andKM capacity. Furthermore, this paper shows how fuzzy screening approach can be used to sub-criteria for the evaluation of organization readiness in KM implementation. Findings indicate that proposed fuzzydecision support system (FDSS) could select organizations with higher maturity in prerequisites of KM implementation. Finally, the model is applied to three subsidiaries of a holding company active in the food industry to illustrate the proposed methodology.

Tendency to entrepreneurial activities are restricted by various factors such as anti-motivational and environmental conditions. In this paper, motivational barriers to enterprise start-ups by Iranian young students and graduates are investigated. This research examines major perceived barriers that obstacle Iranian young students and graduates to start up their own entrepreneurial businesses. A questionnaire has been used for data collection which evaluates the data related to dependent variable of entrepreneurial activity and fifteen components of the independent variable. Statistical population includes the Iranian young students and graduates who have tried to start up or develop a new independent business. Statistical analysis shows that “ fear of inability to provide sufficient financial resources to set up business” , “ fear of financial ruin” , “ concern over the lack of provision of legal requirements” , “ fear of debt” and “ lack of skills” are respectively the most important elements of anti-motivational factors to enterprise start-ups by Iranian young students and graduates.

Regarding the critical role of knowledge in gaining competitive advantages, businesses experts are focusing on customer’ s knowledge more than before according to the recent global advancements. The emergence of web 2. 0 and social software applications have opened up a new horizon for companies to engage in a more exciting and meaningful relationship with customers. The purpose of this study is to provide a conceptual framework for customer knowledge management using social software. To achieve this goal, a three-stage research strategy including “ Designing conceptual framework” , “ Validation of a conceptual framework” and “ Evaluation of selected companies (Hamkaran System)” is defined. The conceptual framework of research has introduced social software according to three major categories of customer`s knowledge “ For” , “ From” and “ About” . Findings indicate that “ Social Networking” , “ Blog” and “ RSS” are considered as the most important social software so as to manage three main types of customer knowledge. Hence, in this study the use of social software to manage customer`s knowledge is evaluated in Hamkaran System Company. The results of this study also suggest that the company has just utilized “ Podcasts” and “ RSS” as social software so as to manage customer`s knowledge. Based on information extracted by the researchers, this study is the first research work which follows and explains the role of social software in managing a variety of customer`s knowledge in an organization.