Developing a Technology Roadmap for Regenerative Medicine: A Participatory Action Research

Technology roadmapping is one of the most popular and common strategic planning tools. Nevertheless, the process of developing a roadmap, which is as important as its outputs, is less widely considered. To improve the process, numerous international companies, organizations and institutions have published elaborate guidelines. This paper concentrates on the implementation of a novel participatory action research methodology for an Iranian organization with the aim of improving the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development / International Energy Agency (OECD/IEA) (2014) model published as a guideline for developing a technology roadmap. The inquiry entails of three iterative cycles each of which consists of five steps: cognition, planning, action, evaluation and learning. Two types of learnings are achieved: firstly, to develop a technology roadmap for regenerative medicine, secondly, to improve the existing theory on the process of developing a technology roadmap. As a result, the following three conclusions can be drawn: First, interactional iterative meetings for more familiarization of the researcher and the experts with the subject are recommended. Second, in-depth semi-structured interviews are advised as the most effective data collecting method, third, multi-step evaluations and modifications shall be promoted to enhance and develop the content quality of the technology roadmap.