THE MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY AS A STRATEGIC FACTOR OF INDUSTRIAL COMPETITIVENESS

THE MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY AS A STRATEGIC FACTOR OF INDUSTRIAL COMPETITIVENESS

Today, the most important growth and progress factors in contemporary societies are associated with research processes, their technological development and the level of innovation that is implemented. So then, the progress of a country, is- in the quality of its human resources, in the technological strategy and knowledge, as factors capable of creating and using technology efficiently, applying them to the needs of the productive fabric and the improvement of the quality of life, social interaction and relevant economic progress. In addition, the common element of success in the leading countries is their continuous strategy of incorporating new knowledge and technical advances into production to make it more flexible, achieve greater productivity, and achieve increasing specialization in products with high added value and technological content.

Based on the above, it can be pointed out that a country, region or territorial entity will be competitive to the extent that its productive activities, as well as its inhabitants and public, social and private organizations, are together effective, efficient, enterprising and innovative; which implies that they have the support of infrastructures, equipment, human capital and institutions necessary to take advantage of their comparative advantages, making them competitive.

In this sense, worldwide, the great changes that take place in relation to academic training have progressively transformed the traditional industry into a more innovative and participatory one; which has allowed the promotion of creative thinking through the use of teams to transform knowledge into practical processes. In such a way, that the creation of new knowledge environments has generated an increase in production in all senses, as well as a connection with business sectors that inject human and economic capital into industries.

In this regard, different nations have sought to optimize the industry through innovation processes. This has allowed some regions of the world to boom in the field of knowledge while others have lagged behind due to lack of investment in this area. So that when observing technology as something favorable, for the increase of productivity in the short, medium and long term, investments in this matter have increased.

In the current context, industries act as veritable turbines in the development process. They provide qualified people and knowledge from which the productive and service sector can innovate and compete successfully. This precisely explains the economic development of countries like the US, the European Union, Japan and more recently China and India. These great powers are joined by small countries with a great capacity to innovate, such as Finland, Singapore, Taiwan, Ireland and South Korea, which in a few years have achieved great prosperity thanks to the formation of alliances between industries and the sector. productive (Department of National Planning, 2008).

Precisely, the capacity to innovate constitutes one more capacity of the organizations and in particular of the industries; as well as the financial, commercial and productive ones. In addition, as Cooper (2019) points out, it is important that organizations develop capacities to combine resources of different natures, in order to create innovative products, processes, and services, face competitive pressures, risks, and assume flexible and innovative administrative styles.

According to studies, there is no evidence of awareness that innovation capabilities play a powerful role within organizations, such is the case of European industries, in which there is still a strong tendency towards short-term contracts, which do not allow a sustainable development as pointed out by Cooper (2019, p. 56).

Particularly in Spain, the reduction in direct aid is a problem that affects the conditions for conducting research, both for researchers and for industries. Other cases that show some problems regarding the development of innovation capacities in research centers are related to factors such as the culture of innovation and learning, organizational design open to learning, strategic orientation, knowledge and information management systems, existence of technological opportunities and cultural diversity, occurs in countries like South Korea. In addition to the above, the industries were late incorporated into the national innovation effort. Likewise, in Finland, only 40% of companies have collaboration arrangements with industries, especially in the field of new information and communication technologies, as Durand (2019, p. 85) explains.

The outstanding situations can be observed in countries such as Japan, Denmark, the United States, France, to mention the most prominent; where large investments have been made to promote technology management at all industrial levels, especially from the first levels of industry, since it is considered that at this stage of the human being, the person acquires knowledge more broadly; In addition to this, stimulation from an early age is encouraged for industrial strengthening that will be displayed in productive citizens for the nation.

In fact, in countries such as those mentioned, among which Japan stands out, industrial programs have been created where technology management represents a transversal axis, that is, for the performance of any activity, this element must be present as an unavoidable point that allows strengthening creative thinking in everything related to networks, computing, equipment, among others, which gives them a great advantage compared to other nations because, from an early age, productivity, access to technologies and the way children are encouraged to solve all their affairs by means that are easier, thus preparing them for the future.

Now, in this context of ideas it can be pointed out that in the Latin American case, there are few investments in technology management for the industry that are made in the nations. In fact, one of the budgets that is most depressed is that of the industry, for which reason when the monetary allocations arrive, a decantation of priorities is made, leaving that of technology management in the background.

To the above, Hidalgo (2020, p. 47), adds that the situation in Latin America in this area and that of Chile in particular, has been negatively qualified, because they have not taken into account incidental factors that help develop capacity. of innovation; In this sense, they have given an immoderate weight to the supply of research and technological services to the detriment of the requirements coming from the demand side.

The rigidity of the industries; the shortage and lack of renewal of highly qualified personnel; the lack of interest on the part of local companies in technological development activities and a tendency to preferentially operate the transfer, through the importation of capital and machinery and only to a lesser degree, through agreements for the acquisition and use of technologies , which would be more favorable factors in terms of endogenous learning and for the framework of innovation capacities, desirable for the technological development of peoples and countries.

Regarding the above, Majluf (2020, p. 48), has stated that in Chile company executives consider that the existing relationship with the industries (externality level) is low, at the same time they manifest a negative vision of the quality of scientific institutions in the country. A similar critical opinion exists among executives in Argentina and Mexico, as well as Greece, Malaysia and Korea; there is a slightly better appreciation in Brazil and clearly positive only in Finland and the Netherlands within the group of comparison countries.

In Mexico, there are biotechnological industrial centers, which, according to the study by Morín and Seurat (2020, p. 22), consider that the main factors that explain the failure to link with companies are due to the technological culture of companies. , the absence of research and development, lack of capacity to generate demands towards the industries and contribute to structuring the scientific and technological environment around their requirements, little tradition of financing long-term technological development projects, little capacity to determine the productive potential of biotechnology and understand the nature of the developments that a research center can offer to the industry.

In this regard, it can be seen, as indicated by Virtual Industry (2020) that some Latin American countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Argentina represent the most dedicated to investment in technology for the industry. Among these, Brazil stands out, which has made a huge investment in connectivity -hoping to reach 160,000 connected industries by 2020- and equipment -in industries and in other formats such as laboratories in cities, to make knowledge accessible to everyone in formation process.

In this context, in particular, various projects on science and technology and innovation (CTI) have been carried out, understanding that these elements are very important factors to achieve a country with greater social, political, economic, and cultural well-being, among others . These are: scientific development projects, scientific dissemination, popularization of science, youth CTI programs, among others. Efforts have been oriented, to a large extent, to create a scientific and research culture that enhances Latin American scientific development , however, such a culture is still far below expectations, as Chaparro points out (2020, p. 11).

So in Latin America, the innovation system presents weaknesses, due to the little importance that is evident to take as references, determinants of innovation capacities, showing in particular the absence of a culture of innovation, there is no social construction, or at least a clear, critical and evaluative diffusion of the conceptual framework of the meaning of innovation for society and its relationship and importance in the face of the competitiveness of business and non-business organizations.

There is no visible evidence of permanent and socializing academic discussion that recreates the conceptual framework around innovation as explained by López, (2022, p. 77). In addition to the above, the author considers that, in Latin America, insufficient priority has been given to institutional development in decisions on the allocation of resources that affect science, technology and innovation. At the institutional level, the need to go beyond the self-sustainability of innovation organizations in Latin countries is appreciated.

On the other hand, it is necessary to define parameters and indicators for the evaluation of the activities of the SNIC organizations and of the traditional investments in the training of human talent, which facilitate the learning of knowledge about marketing, commercialization and financing of the innovation and strategic technologies.

In this regard, it must be taken into account that industries are part of social institutions, which play a fundamental role in the transformation of societies, since they transmit to individuals the intellectual knowledge essential for the modernization and democratization of society. , providing the schemes and values that ensure social stability, assisting and serving communities in solving the complex problems associated with their development and well-being, leading them to be part of the integration process that will affect the future of their social organization . In this sense , research programs for industries are considered organizations, because they operate in the knowledge market, both on the supply side, through the generation, transmission, diffusion or dissemination of knowledge, and on the demand side. as users of that knowledge that is generated universally as Odantegui points out (2022, p. 25); Therefore, they play an important role in the entire scientific and technological structure of the institutions, influencing the development of a region or country.

It is also where human resources are trained, which are required for industry, production, decision-making in public policy and innovation. It is significant to state that the Industries as institutions, are called in the first instance to develop processes that help to formulate research plans and programs that tend to contribute to the social and economic progress of their local, regional and national environment.

In such a way, that the industries also have the great advantage of being able to use the enormous potential of knowledge through their teaching and research staff. Therefore, they must have certain innovation capacities, which allow them to address the object of their functions with a greater probability of success. These innovation capabilities understood according to Mu?oz (2020, p. 88) as the ability of an organization to establish itself, to generate innovative outputs, solutions or responses to different disturbances in its environment characterize the suitability of these industrial centers.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

Cooper (2019) Winning at new products , Addison-Wesley, Massachusetts.

Durand (2019) ? Strategic management of technology : different teachings ?, Futuribles, November.

Hidalgo (2020) ?The management of technological innovation: the validity of its assumptions in the company?, in M. RUíZ (ed.): Desenvolupement empresarial a Lleida: cooperació , innovació , infrastructure, finan?ament , promoció , Collecció Economy and Business. University of Lleida. Lleida.

Majluf (2020) ?Strategic management of technology?, in CINDA (ed.): Technological Management and University Development, CINDA, Santiago.

Morín and Seurat (2020) Management of technological resources, COTEC Foundation. Madrid.

Mu?oz (2020) Surveillance structure?, Master in Science and Technology Management, Carlos III University, Madrid.

Odantegui (2022) Mastering the dynamics of innovation , Harvard Business School Press . Massachusetts.