Strategic planning: A quantitative model for the strategic evaluation of emerging technologies

Abstract

This chapter presents a quantitative model used for evaluating the impact of emerging technologies on a company’s objective. The hierarchical model with four levels (objective–criteria–factors–technology alternatives) is structured to decompose the complex decision problems and incorporate quantitative and qualitative aspects into the evaluation process. A new approach on applying a semi-absolute scale to quantify the values of technologies is proposed in conjunction with the determination of criteria priorities and the relative importance of factors under each criterion. The impact of technologies on a company’s objective is calculated as a composite index called technology value. The improvement gap and improvement priority of each technology are also determined to identify the characteristics of the emerging technologies on which technology-driven companies would focus in order to maximize the impact of those technologies on the company’s strategic objectives. A case study is included in this chapter to illustrate the applicability and computations of the proposed model.