An empirical analysis of the determinants of technology roadmap utilization.

For many years now, firms have managed their research and development ( R& D) by applying various approaches drawn from the discipline of technology roadmapping ( TRM). The underlying rationale of these roadmapping approaches is to align firms' product and technology developments with their business goals. By visually representing firms' technology strategy, roadmaps support intra-firm communication and facilitate the coordination of strategic decisions and activities within the technology management domain. Most previously published research on TRMs has focused on the design and implementation of roadmapping processes; that is, relatively few empirical or quantitative studies describe the use and evaluation of roadmapping techniques. This paper seeks to address this gap by conducting a survey of 186 different R& D units within stock market-listed companies in Korea that have implemented TRM. The paper attempts to identify the antecedent factors behind firms' successful use of roadmaps, further identifying correlations between these antecedent factors through an analysis of the R& D units. It also empirically highlights these antecedent factors by empirically analyzing and verifying correlations between roadmap utilization and R& D performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]