| Summary, etc. |
Developing countries throughout the world are currently expanding their electricity generation capacity rapidly. The electricity industry is also undergoing significant structural changes. In many regions of the world it is being transformed from a monolithic state owned enterprise into a number of small public companies. Improving plant availability, increasing operating efficiency, reducing pollution, commissioning large utility projects without cost and time overrun, implementing demand side management techniques and providing a high level of guaranteed service are some of the technological challenges that electricity utilities are facing to improve their competitiveness. In _spite of the crucial role of technological capability in enhancing the competitiveness of the firm, there have been only few systematic studies that have looked at technological capability issues in depth. Existing studies have also failed to provide a comprehensive definition of technological capability and an approach for identifying the technological capability needs of the firm. Fmihermore, these studies are also not prescriptive in the sense that they fail to identify what steps management must pursue to enhance the technological capability of an organization. In the electricity utility industry there are many studies relating to "integrated" project management that cover matters of organization, finance, human resomces, etc. without explicit consideration of technology management issues. It is well known that the poor performance of many electricity utilities is due to their low level of technological capability. Thus, in the rapidly changing electricity utility business environment, there is a need for the utilities to assess their existing level of technological capabilities and take appropriate steps to enhance them. Based on the synthesis of the work that has been done thus far, and a recognition of the weaknesses in them, a comprehensive definition of technological capability has been suggested. This definition views technological capability as a set of functional abilities reflected in the firm's performance through various technological activities and whose ultimate purpose is firm level value management. Furthermore, it classifies technological capabilities into three major categories. The first, called strategic technological capabilities, comprises creation, design and engineering, and construction capabilities. The second, called tactical technological capabilities, includes production, marketing and selling, and servicing capabilities. The last, referred to as supplementary technological capabilities, consists of acquiring and suppotiive capability (training, strategic planning, information support and networking, technology selling, and safety and security capabilities). The first two directly deal with value addition activities (creation, design and engineering, construction, production, marketing and selling, and servicing) while the third supports the value addition stages (strategic and tactical). In addition, another capability, which is not technological, called steering capability, is included to emphasize the fact that, without it, technological capabilities cannot be effectively deployed and upgraded. iii This classification of technological capabilities has been used to study the technological capability profile of firms in the electricity sector. Firms in this sector are involved primarily in one or more value addition activities. Based on their likely mix of value addition activities, ten typologies of electricity utility companies have been developed. It has been shown that while it is a prerequisite for these companies to have the required tactical and/or strategic technological capability, it is imperative that all of them must possess an adequate level of supplementary and steering capabilities. Development of a definition of technological capability and typologies based on technological capability is the first step for technological capability assessment. Traditionally, many studies dealing with science and technology indicators mainly emphasize the measurement of technology, not technological capability. In this study a number of input indicators, output indicators, productivity indicators, quality indicators, and effectiveness indicators have been therefore developed for technological capability assessment. These indicators make use of both qualitative and quantitative values since a purely objective assessment of technological capability is extremely difficult because of the existence and interaction of many subjective factors. For all qualitative indicators and quantitative indicators appropriate rating schemes based on industry norms have been developed. Detailed discussions were carried out with managers at the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), and the Electricite De France (EDF) to test the relevance of the developed indicators. A deliberate attempt has been made to ensure that the data needed for indicator computation is easily available or can be easily collected. Yet, it is possible that if an outsider uses this approach to study a utility, some of the information that may be considered confidential may not be made available by the organization. However, if a firm wishes to carry out an analysis for their own planning purposes, data limitations is unlikely to be a barrier for the use of the methodology. Using the proposed methodology, studies were carried out at the Electricity generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and the Electricite De France (EDF). For approximately 10% of the indicators, data could not be obtained from both EGAT and EDF due to reasons of confidentiality and/or lack of data availability within the company. In some instances there is a need for reorganizing the data management system of both the companies. The case study at EDF showed that it has a high level of creation, marketing and selling, service, acquisitive, supportive, and steering capabilities. Its design and engineering; and production capability was found to be between medium and high level. Its construction capability may be rated as falling between low and medium level. The study at EGAT showed that its construction capability, design and engineering capability, and acquisitive capability are at low to medium level. Its production capability, and marketing and selling capability are at high level. The company's supportive capability and steering capability may be rated as falling between medium and high level. Based on these findings several strategic issues have been highlighted in the case of EDF and EGAT. iv The technological capability assessment case studies at EDF and EGAT have illustrated the application of the developed methodology and have also shown that the findings can lead to the generation of recommendations for enhancing technological capability. In addition, the two case studies have also brought out important endogenous and exogenous factors which contribute to the present level of technological capability. The factors include: technology used in the company; company culture; organization size; company strategy; the level of learning; intelligence gathering activities; size of the economy and growth rate; financial and fiscal policies of government; and factor market conditions. Technological capability assessment is not an end in itself. It provides critical information to help a firm make strategic decisions. The methodology developed in this research can be used in analyzing a company's strengths and weaknesses with respect to its technological capability. The study can also be used for benchmarking purposes. Through benchmarking, an organization can identify the technological capability gap it has with respect to a state-of-the-art firm. This gap can provide an indication of what a firm needs to do to enhance its technological capability to become more competitive. A possible approach for technological capability enhancement has been suggested in this study. Finally, the study can be utilized to provide inputs for planning diversification, divestment, mergers and acquisition, and technology transfer. The study also recommends a procedure for implementing a technological capability assessment scheme at the firm level. |
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