Adquirir Nuevas Tecnologias

Acquiring External Technology
Twenty-two firms explain how they identify, evaluate, access, and integrate external technology into
their product lines. How well organized is your company’s process?
Gene Slowinski, Susan A. Stanton, John C. Tao, Wayne Miller, and Donald P. McConnell

Gene Slowinski directs strategic alliance research at the
Graduate School of Management at RutgersUniversity,
Newark, New Jersey. He is also director of the university’s
technical assistance program. He holds an M.B.A. and a Ph.D.
in management from Rutgers. For the last 20 years, he has
consulted and conducted research on accessing external
technology through the use of strategic alliances.
gene@strategicalliance.com
Susan Stanton is a principal in SBCi, a Sunbury, Ohio
organization founded toperform market and technology
assessments to meet the business needs of corporations. Prior
to joining SBCi, she held management and technical
positions in the chemicals and materials industries. She
received a M.Ph. from Syracuse University and a Ph.D. from
the University of Rochester, both in organic chemistry.
susanstanton@earthlink.net
John Tao is the corporate director of technologypartnerships
at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Since joining APCI in 1974 he has held a variety of positions
in general management, strategic planning, business
development, venture management, and environmental, health
and safety assurance. He received an M.S. degree in chemical
engineering from the University of Delaware, and a Ph.D. in
chemical engineering fromCarnegie-Mellon University.
Wayne Miller is the vice president of technology and
development at Sunoco, in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. He is
responsible for ensuring that the business units have the
technology needed to be competitive and grow in the future.
He received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the
California Institute of Technology.
Donald McConnell is a corporate senior vicepresident at
Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio. He is also
associate laboratory director at the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory, where he is responsible for power systems,
building systems, energy product development and
applications, energy operations, industrial technology,
advanced manufacturing, and information systems
engineering. He holds an M.S. in engineeringmechanics from
New York University.
0895-6308/00/$5.00 © 2000 Industrial Research Institute, Inc.

Companies are accessing external technology more
aggressively than ever. For example, Jonash reported
that, in over 50 companies, the amount of
externally-sourced technology increased from 20 percent
of the total in the 1980s to 50 percent in the 1990s (1).
Chatterji developed a framework foracquiring external
technology and integrating it into a corporate
environment (2), while Harris et al summed up the goal
by stating, “Own only what [technology] you must and
influence all you can” (3).
In order to understand how companies successfully
access external technology, we interviewed the external
technology directors of 22 Industrial Research Institute
member companies. The companiesreflected a
cross-section of the industry sectors represented within
the IRI. To obtain maximum involvement of each
organization, anonymity was promised. The
organizations included representatives from consumer
products, oil and gas, automotive, pharmaceuticals,
chemicals, aerospace, and the electronics sectors. They
were selected using several criteria, including the
perceived valueplaced on external technology, the
maturity of the process for accessing external
technology, and the respective industrial sector.
Our goal was to identify commonality in how
organizations identify, access, and evaluate external
technology. The specific topics that were examined
included:
1. External technology acquisition processes and
systems that linked with the strategic planning,...