INTEGRATING STRATEGY BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND PRODUCT: IDENTIFICATION OF CRITICAL ACTIVITIES IN THE PROCESS OF INNOVATION

Abstract

Practices to promote innovations are one of the biggest challenges to organizations which seek to develop technologies and integrate them into commercially successful products. Integration of technology and product is a result of a technology development process (TDP) to be used in a product development process (PDP). It becomes necessary for the innovation management to identify the activities, in both cases, to ensure that this integration occurs. The aim of this study is to identify the critical activities to technology and product integration. It is comprised of a literature review, to identify the activities of the TDP and the PDP, as well as a case study of a company in the nanotechnology field to identify if those activities were critical to this integration. This methodological approach considers this study an exploratory research based on empirical data. The results show that the performance of market research, participation in trade fairs, and holding constant contacts with the customer during the development of technology were critical for the integration. Due to this, we suggest the implementation research to enable the development of a theoretical model, complete with stages and gates, which can help organizations in its innovation management.