Combining technology and corporate strategy in small high tech firms

The gap between technology management and business planning in the small high tech firm has been variously described as an opportunity area, a source of strategic weakness, and a root cause of competitive disadvantage. Similarly, the link between technology strategy and corporate strategy has been viewed as a natural concomitant of growing maturity in the small high tech firm, an integral and necessary evolution in corporate philosophy,land a positive task for an increasingly professional management team. The purpose of this paper is to report on an empirical research project into these issues. A survey of 223 small high tech firms located on science parks was carried out, though the analysis presented here concentrates on the 150 or so of the sample that carried out in-house R&D work. The discussion indicates a strong evolutionary effect within which firms demonstrate a high degree of informality and flexibility in early stages of the firm's life in terms of both technology strategy and overall business strategy. As the firm develops, formality increases significantly and the technology-push imperative gives way to a powerful market orientation. The results give empirical support to a number of concepts that have been developed in the literature in small high tech firms, and also raise a question about the impact of multinationality on the development of such firms. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.