Technology Shocks

Radical technological changes (so-called "technology shocks")frequentlydisrupt the competitive market structure. New entrants appear, industries need to be redefined, incumbents lose their positions or vanish completely. Fast moving industries - like the often quoted example of the semiconductor industry - have preferably been analyzed for these phenomena. But do the findings hold for industries with longer development cycles like the global machine tool industry? Here,multivariate analysis is usedto find out what management needs to focus on in orderto lead companies through the technology shocks. The research for this book builds onin-depth interviews with 100 experts and decision makers from the machine tool industry involvedin technology shocksand statistical analysis of detailed quantitative surveys collected from 58 companies.In several instances the results challenge classical teaching of technology management.