MEANING: Technological environment, like its counterparts- political and legal, and cultural wields considerable influence on International

Marketing. J K Galbraith defines technology as a systematic application of scientific or other organised knowledge to practical tasks. Technology is the most dramatic force shaping the destiny of people all over the world. Some of the technological inventions men feels, are wonders, some others are horrors, and yet others have mixed feelings. Automobiles and televisions for example have evoked mixed reactions. Hydrogen bomb, nerve gas, and submarine guns have proved to be horrors. Penicillin, open heart surgery, and birth control pills are wonders. Whether one is enthralled or appalled by a technological invention depends on ones outlook.

CLASSIFICATION OF TECHNOLOGY: Technology can be classified in several ways. For example, blueprints, machinery, equipment and other capital goods are sometimes referred to as hard technology while soft technology includes management know-how, finance, marketing and administrative techniques. When a relatively primitive technology is used in the production process the technology is usually referred to as labour intensive. A highly advanced technology on the other hand is generally termed as capital intensive.

THE TECHNOLOGY CYCLE: It basically involves implementing five stages as follows; 1. Awareness Phase: This is the first phase of technology cycle in which a company has a formal mechanism to become aware of emerging technologies relevant to the companys needs. Some companys form think-tanks with engineers, scientists, who research from around the world and gather information through computer bulletin services, journals, magazines, books, conferences and international product exhibitions. This information is synthesized and put in short internal report form for the benefit of corporate strategic planners and technology policy markers.

2. Acquisition Phase: This phase involves the actual acquisition of a particular technology. To go from the awareness phase to the acquisition phase, the companys technology group, in collaboration with the industrial engineering group, would conduct technical feasibility study, as well as an economic feasibility study, before justifying and acquiring a new technology. 3. Adaptation Phase: Virtually every enterprise ends up adapting an acquired technology for its particular needs. If the work is done correctly, the transition from acquisition to adaptation becomes much smoother and less expensive. Conversely, if sufficient time and effort have not gone into studying the relevance of a particular technology to the companys present needs, a great deal of rework and adaptation result. This not only frustrates the people acquiring the technology but also slows down the assimilation rate, causes major productivity losses and results in severe quality problems. 4. Advancement Phase: When capital is limited, one cannot indiscriminately purchase or abandon technologies with scarce money. It becomes important to improvise the acquired technologies for ones home needs. 5: Abandonment Phase: This last phase is the most critical because decisions are made concerning the obsolescence of a particular technology. With the rapid discarding of existing technologies, timing for new technology is critical for survival, let alone for winning in the business game. Bad timing in prematurely abandoning a product could result in lost revenues and on the other hand, waiting too long to abandon might also result in revenue loss because a customer may find a better alternative in competition.

IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY: The impact of technology can be classified as a. Social implications b. Economic implications c. Plant level implications

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS: 1. High expectations of consumers: Affluent citizens want more of many things than more of same things. New varieties of products, superior in quality, free from pollution, more safe and more comfortable are produced and supplied to the affluent sections. This calls for substantial investments in R&D. one important compulsion for investing in technological advances in Japan is its customers high expectations regarding design sophistication, quality, delivery schedules, and prices. High expectations of consumers pose a challenge and an opportunity to the owners of business institutions. 2. System complexity: Technology has resulted in complexity. Modern machines work better and faster no doubt. But they fail they need the services of experts for repair. They often fail because of their complexity. A machine or a system is composed of several hundred components. All parts must work in tandem to accomplish a desired task. Reliable performance of each part therefore assumes greater significance. 3. Social change: Social change may be the change in the social life of an individual which results due to changes in the technological process. Thus an invention may destroy the economic basis of a city, displace thousands of workers, yet the same invention may result in creation of a new city somewhere else and create even more jobs than it originally destroyed.

ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS: 1. Increased productivity: The most fundamental effect of technology is greater productivity in terms of both quality and quantity. This is the main reason why technology is adopted at all levels. For ex, in a hospital the objective may be qualitative such as maintaining life with electronic monitoring equipment regardless of costs. In a factory, the objective may be quantitative in terms of more production at less cost. 2. Jobs become intellectual: With the advent of technology, jobs tend to become more intellectual or upgraded. A job handled by an illiterate and unskilled worker now requires the service of an educated and competent worker. A clerical post in an office now demands the services of an expert in computers. 3. Increased regulations and stiff opposition: A product of technological advancement is the ever increasing regulation imposed on business by the government of the land and stiff opposition from the public. The host government has the powers to investigate and ban the products that are directly harmful or hurt the sentiments of the sections of the society. Import of animal tallow has been banned by the government of India because the alleged mixture of vanaspati oil hurt the feelings of Hindus. 4. Rise and decline of products and organisations: A new technology may spawn a major industry but it may also destroy an existing one. For ex. Transistors, hurt the vaccum-tube industry and xerography hurt the carbon-paper business, Television affected the radio broadcasting companies etc.

PLANT LEVEL IMPLICATIONS 1: Technology and organisation: Technology has its impact on various areas of an organisation. Any technological advancement will result in a) expanded availability of a range of products and services. b) substitution for labour leading to higher productivity and lower cost. c) increases in sales or power for the innovating organisation relative to its competitors. d) initiation of changes in behaviour among customers, suppliers, employees, or society.

2: Resistance to change: The manager of a given organisation shall face resistance to change. New technology poses new problems which may not be to the liking of the organisational men. The resistance to change is often psychological. 3: E- commerce: The growth of internet and the associated World Wide Web has made ecommerce possible. E-commerce is contributing to a growing percentage of cross-border transactions. Viewed globally, the web is emerging as the great equaliser. It rolls back some of the constraints of location, distance, scale, and time zones. The web makes it much easier for buyers and sellers to find each others, wherever they may be located, and whatever their size. 4: Transportation technology: In addition to the developments in computers and telecommunications, several major innovations in transportation have occurred since World War II. In Economic terms, the most important are probably the development of commercial jet aircraft and super fighters and the introduction of containerisation which simplifies trans-shipment from one mode of transport to another. The advent of commercial jet has reduced the travel time of the business men, containerisation has lowered the cost of shipping goods over long distances.

5: Globalisation of production: Technological breakthroughs have facilitated globalisation of production. A worldwide communication network has become essential for any MNC. For ex. Texas Instruments (TI), the US electronic firm, has nearly 50 plants in 19 countries. A satellite based communications system allow TI to coordinate on a global scale, its production planning, cost accounting, financial planning, marketing, customer service and human resource. 6: Globalisation of markets: Along with the globalisation of production, technological innovations have facilitated the internationalisation of markets. As stated before, containerisation has made it more economical to transport goods over long distances, thereby creating global markets.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERS: Technology transfers comprises of six categories; 1. International Technology Transfer, in which the transfer is across national boundaries. Generally such transfers take place between developed and developing countries. 2. Regional Technology Transfer, in which technology is transferred from one region of a country to another. 3. Cross-industry or Cross-sector Technology Transfer, in which technology is transferred from one industrial sector to another. An example is the transfer of technology from space programme to commercial applications. 4: Inter-firm Technology Transfer, in which technology is transferred from one firm to another. 5: Intra- firm Technology Transfer, in which technology is transferred within a firm, from one location to another. It may also be made from one department to another within the same facility. 6: Pirating or Reverse- Engineering, whereby access to technology is obtained at the expense of the proprietary rights of the owners of the technology.