중소기업의 기술경영 활동수준과 기술역량 및 기술혁신 애로요인간의 관계 (A Relationship between Intensity of Technology Management, Technological Capabilities and Barriers to Innovations in SMEs)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국중소기업학회
· 수록지 정보 : 중소기업연구 / 34권 / 2호 / 81 ~ 99페이지
· 저자명 : 박상문, 서종현

초록

중소기업의 기술경쟁력은 개별기업의 지속적인 성장과 성과창출에 중요한 요인으로 여겨져 왔다. 중소기업들이 국가경제에 미치는 영향이나 중요성으로 인해 정부차원의 중소기업 기술혁신 지원정책들은 기술혁신 자금지원을 통해 지속적으로 확대하고 있으나, 중소기업들의 기술경쟁력 수준은 크게 개선되지 않고 있다. 기술혁신에 대한 선행연구들도 기술혁신 투자가 기업성과에 미치는 영향들도 일관된 결과를 보이지 못하고 있다. 기업들의 기술혁신을 저해하는 다양한 요인들로 인해 기술혁신에 대한 투자효과가 기대에 못 미치고 있다. 기술을 활용한 가치창출에 초점을 둔 기술경영의 중요성이 대두되고 있으나, 이와 관련된 연구는 미흡한 상황이다. 본 연구에서는 중소기업에서 기술경영 활동수준이 기술역량과 기술혁신 애로요인에 미치는 영향을 실증적으로 살펴보았다. 국내 중소제조업체들을 대상으로 설문조사를 실시하였으며, 총 337개 응답결과를 분석에 활용하였다. 분석결과, 기술경영 활동수준은 전반적인 기술역량과 정의 유의한 영향관계를 보이는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 기술경영 활동수준은 기술혁신의 애로요인에 대해서도 부의 유의한 영향관계를 갖는 것으로 나타났다. 기술경영의 세부활동 수준에서는 시장조사활동과 R&D 과제관리 활동수준은 기술역량과 유의한 정의 영향관계를 보였다. 기술개발 애로요인과 세부 기술경영 활동과의 관계에서는 R&D 과제관리와 조직적 참여수준은 기술개발과정상의 애로요인과 유의한 부의 영향관계를 보이는 반면, 시장조사활동과 R&D 과제관리 수준은 사업화 애로요인과 부의 영향관계를 보이는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 분석결과는 중소기업 있어서 기술경영이 기업의 기술역량과 혁신을 통한 가치창출 촉진에 중요함을 의미한다. 특히, 기술경영 활동 중에서는 R&D 과제관리가 기술경영 활동에서 다른 활동들보다 기술경쟁력과 혁신 애로요인에 유의한 관계임을 보임으로써 R&D 과제관리의 중요성을 재확인시켜주고 있다. 본 연구결과를 바탕으로 중소기업의 기술경쟁력 향상과 기술혁신 촉진을 위한 실무적 의의와 정책적 방향을 제시한다.

영어초록

This study investigates the intensity of technology management practices on technological capabilities and barriers to innovations in Korean small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Researchers have examined the roles of innovations on firms’ short-term performances and long-run survival and growth of firms. Under this important role of innovation, firm managers and policy makers have invested more financial resources into research and development functions to enhance innovation capabilities and seize business opportunities. Prior studies, however, have shown controversial relationships between R&D investment and firm performance. Some studies have shown positive effects of R&D investment on firm performance, guiding more investment in R&D activities. Others have shown non-significant or negative relationships between R&D investment and performance. These inconsistent relationships between R&D investment and performance show a need to explore additional factors to explain the differences and contingent effects of R&D investment on performance. Among many factors, a group of researchers have been interested in technology management practices to effectively and efficiently manage innovation processes from strategic alignment through R&D management to commercialization. In spite of theoretical arguments on technology management practice, there are few empirical studies to understand the relationships of technology management practices with innovation capabilities and barriers to innovation. Based on prior researches, we developed two hypotheses on the impacts between technology management on technological capabilities and barriers to innovations.
This paper focuses on the relationships between technology management processes on performances and barriers to innovations in SMEs. To verify hypothetical relationships, we collected and analyzed empirical data from Korean SMEs from firms older than three years in multiple industries. We asked key informants responsible for R&D investment to respond to this survey. This study measured two dependents variables. One is the level of technological capability that was measured by averaging the perceived level of product and process capabilities compared to major competitors. Another is barriers to innovation in the overall innovation processes. From eight different key difficulties around innovation processes based on related prior studies, we reduced two difficulty factors, barriers on R&D process and barriers on commercialization with four different items in each factor. The independent variable used in this paper was a measure of the intensity of technology managements. We identified five different sub-activities related to technology management from prior studies. They include market analysis and intelligence, technology strategy and planning, project and R&D management, intellectual property management, and organizational support. Each sub-activity was independently regarded as one of the key factors in technology management and critical determinants of innovation performances. All sub-activity consists of four detailed items measured by binary variables. From this measurement, the intensity of technology management added all binary measures on all activities and sub-activity was measured by the addition of the binary usage of the detailed items. This paper used several control variables. Firm age was measured by total firm years from its inception. Firm size was the natural logarithm of the total number of employees. Also another firm size variable was added by coding a binary variable depending on total sales volumes. We added another binary variable depending on the existence of a corporate R&D center. To measure government certification on technological capability, we coded one for externally certified firms in terms of technological capabilities and zero for other SMEs. We measured competitive strategy : technology leadership, cost leadership, and niche strategy. Each firm was identified with one competitive strategy as two different binary variables.
Based on data collected from 337 respondents from a survey on Korean SMEs in manufacturing sectors, the results show that the intensity of technology management is important for SMEs to enhance innovation capabilities. Total intensity of technology management practices has positive relationships with technological capabilities. It means that SMEs utilizing more technology management practices operate more competitive innovation processes and build their technological capabilities. Among sub-activities in technology management, there are different relationships with technological capabilities. Practices related to market analysis and R&D management show positive relationships. Other practices, such as technology planning, intellectual property management and organizational support, have no significant impacts on technological capabilities. This indicates market analysis and R&D management practices are more significant and important for SMEs to build their innovation capabilities.
Also the intensity of technology management practices has significantly negative relationships with both barriers to innovations, R&D process and commercialization. For the barrier to R&D processes, practices on R&D management and organizational support have negatively significant relationships with general difficulties in R&D processes. Other practices including market intelligence, technology planning, and intellectual property management show no statistically significant impacts on R&D processes. This result indicates that barriers to R&D processes are the matter of organizational systems and processes to manage overall innovation processes within the organization. The total intensity of technology management practices has a significantly negative relationship with the barrier to commercialization. Among the sub-activities, practices related to R&D management and market intelligence show negative relationships with difficulty in commercialization processes. Other practices such as technology planning, intellectual property management, and organizational support have shown no significant relationships. This result indicates that commercialization problems in innovation are rooted in practices in the early stages of innovation processes, not only assessing market potential and customer needs in the market, but also timely and strategic management of R&D projects and progress in research and development.
The study shows the importance of technology management for SMEs to build their technological capabilities and reduce difficulties in innovation processes. Most technology management and practical practices have focused on large companies with sufficient internal resources. Different from prior studies, this study examined the importance of technology management and identified some specific practices, of which one is highly related to technological capabilities and innovation processes. The most interesting technology management practice is R&D management practice. This practice has shown a positive relationship with technological capabilities and negative relationships with both barriers to innovation. It indicates that R&D management could be a baseline practice on technology management and a practical guideline for SMEs to enhance their innovation performances. Another interesting practice is market intelligence to analyze market trends and customer needs which are regarded as key factors on innovation. Apart from financial investment in innovations, technology management is another important factor for industrial firms to create and capture more value from innovation.
There are some limitations and future research directions. Most of all, we need more systematic and practical technology management models rather than highly complex and resource-intensive systems. Despite increasing interest and literature, there is still a lack of understanding on critical practices for SMEs to adopt and utilize technology management with practical viewpoints. More empirical studies are needed to test more robust models and methodology to measure intensity and quality of technology management practices. Also we need additional researches on the generalization of the relationships between technology management and innovation performances in diverse contexts and environments.

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