The research strategy in management of technological innovation

The increasing importance of technology in the application world has imposed high demand on the research community for insightful and useful principles about ‘management of technological innovation’ (MTI). This paper examines the academic legacy in terms of conceptual categories, causal relationships and taxonomy of relevant systems, and asserts from a system perspective that MTI as an applied science is still in its infancy. Based on methodological argument, this paper warns of the danger of hasty compromise of strategically important topics to ‘popular’ definition of ‘researchability’, and suggests several research guidelines and approaches for this young interdisciplinary discipline: (1) To explore new frontiers, use ‘proximate variables’, consider contextual factors and causation in broad terms, conceptualize ‘independently’, and pay more attention to case study method. (2) To understand driving forces, be aware of practice, and focus on internal dynamics. (3) To transcend complexity, adopt a hierarchical structure perspective and state-and-flow concept, and condense findings into configurations. Finally, this paper urges the formation of an overall research strategy to accelerate the accumulation of MTI grounded knowledge.