Prioritisation of technological capabilities to maximise the financial performance by fuzzy AHP

Over the last few decades, companies have been investing in technological competency steadily and increasingly. Companies investing in technological competency assumed that such investments would improve operating efficiency and thus improve financial performance. Technology is a business driver and thus can be utilised to support competitive margin. The firm, whose technology competency level is higher than rivals, will generate and introduce more innovative products. The model of this study is tested on a sample of 13 experts in four coil companies in Iran which own about 90% of the market share in the coil industry. In this study, technological capability factors (technology management, process technology, and product technology) are prioritised according to the competitive advantage levels (profit, return on investment, sales growth rate, liquidity, long‐term debt to equity ratio, and working capital) and competitive priorities (cost, price, quality, flexibility, and time) using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) with the aim of maximising the financial performance at coil manufacture industry. The results indicate that within Iran coil industry, process technology is more important than product technology and technology management for coil manufacture industry.