Technological change is a major factor to increase productivity and help organizations to obtain a competitive advantage. In the utilization of new technologies, individual and managerial variables influence directly the use of innovation. There are two important objectives of this study. The first, is to show the rank of the influence of decision makers for a new technology acquisition is different in developed and developing countries' manufacturing organizations and to find out the reasons for this difference. The second objective of this study, is to emphasize the importance of management and technical know-how during the technology acquisition process. As a result, to remain globally competitive, organizations in developed and developing countries have to consider the right combination of people as decision makers and provide comprehensive training programs for each level of employees before making any acquisition decisions. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.
