A portfolio approach to managing technological innovations

Abstract

It is noted that technological innovations can modify, replace, or complement a company's existing set of core competencies. The author first reviews the research that has been done on a firm's response to any one of these effects. He then considers how a company with a diverse portfolio of interdependent core competencies can effectively manage the effect that numerous innovations (which simultaneously create, modify, and destroy these core competencies) have on different parts of the organization. Issues such as manpower planning, monetary constraints, and absorptive capacity is considered.<>