The impact of a company's technology strategy on its technology competence, technology acquisition and firm performance in Chinese SMEs

With the shift towards the '' knowledge economy '', technology competence and technology acquisition have been placed greater emphasis as a source of competitive advantage. On the one hand, a company needs technology competence in order to add value to products and processes. On the other hand, companies need to acquire appropriate technology in order to improve efficiency, performance and competitiveness. While there is a clear indication in the literature of a greater reliance between technology competence and technology acquisition, the impact of a company's technology strategy on its technology competence and technology acquisition, and the potential benefit to firm performance have received limited empirical attention. This study addresses these issues by developing a basic framework for the successful implementation of a technology strategy, which consists of four elements: technology strategy, technology competence, technology acquisition and firm performance. The model is empirically tested in a sample of 125 Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The results show that technology competence and technology acquisition have a significant positive impact on firm performance, while the directly impact of technology strategy on firm performance is not significant. Furthermore, the results suggest that a company's technology strategy, technology competence and technology acquisition have interaction each other, moreover, the interactions of technology competence and technology acquisition, technology strategy and technology acquisition are more significant than the interaction of technology strategy and technology competence.