Factors affecting the choice of technology acquisition mode: An empirical analysis of the electronic firms of Japan, Korea and Taiwan

In today's globalized economy, enterprises are facing ever increasing competitive pressures. A commonly adopted strategy for gaining new technologies and remaining competitive is to acquire needed technology from external sources. The goal of this paper is to identify influential factors and their impact using a multi-factorial analysis of the choice of technology acquisition mode. The effect of various factors on these modes was studied by examining a sampling of the electronic industries of Japan, Korea and Taiwan. A patent analysis combined with Logit Regression is made and tested using data of these electronic firms. The results indicate that among the factors analyzed in this study, the technological capability (including technological level, technological innovation and research and development (R&D) activities) of a firm is the most significant factor in influencing the determination of the mode of technology acquisition. Finally, we discuss the significance of results based on resource theory and present our conclusions and their implications. By highlighting the important links between a firm's technological capability, size, previous experience and relevance of its core technology to the mode of technology acquisition in these technology-based firms, we hope to cast light on the contribution of various influential factors on the decision making of these modes for firms in these countries. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.