Technology watch as a facilitator of resilience in smes
| Autor | Daniel Pérez-González/Sara Trigueros-Preciado |
| Cargo del Autor | Universidad de Cantabria, España |
| Páginas | 2368-2391 |
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CAPÍTULO 111
TECHNOLOGY WATCH AS A FACILITATOR
OF RESILIENCE IN SMES
DR. DANIEL PÉREZ-GONZÁLEZ
DRA. SARA TRIGUEROS-PRECIADO
Universidad de Cantabria, España
ABSTRACT
The complexity of the technological and economic environments along with the
speed of change complicate the survival of companies, especially Small and Medium-
sized Enterprises (SMEs hereafter). In these contexts, resilience becomes an impor-
tant factor for companies, and is a complex concept that has been addressed on
many fronts and has been defined many times, which means it needs research in the
area of management. In that sense, the most recent management literature recognises
the need to move forward not with more definitions that are similar to one another
but with practical measures that identify which tools can affect the resilience of
companies. Furthermore, in today's information and knowledge society, information
management processes such as Technology Watch (TW hereafter) focusing on cap-
turing information from the environment that are of interest to the business and
make them available to decision makers, can play a key role. For that reason, in this
paper based on empirical research carried out by surveying industrial SMEs and
applying statistical models that analyse variance. We analyze if TW use by SMEs
improves the characteristics associated with resilience as anticipation, adaptation and
innovation. Our findings provide positive results in these points, thereby allowing us
to conclude that information management processes like TW are facilitators of resi-
lience in companies.
KEYWORDS
Resilience, Technology Watch, SMEs.
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INTRODUCTION
In economic contexts characterised by global competition, rapidly
changing business environments and the impossibility of our compa-
nies being able to compete with emerging economies in terms of costs,
the competitiveness of organisations can be compromised by their
capacity to react and adapt to change and by the development of kno-
wledge that leads to new products or services and more efficient proce-
sses (Trigueros-Preciado et al., 2013).
It is within this context, resilience becomes a very important factor
and is a multidisciplinary and complex concept, which has not been
addressed in the area of management as much as others. It can be un-
derstood in a wide sense as the capacity of organisations to internalise
changes and ruptures, from within and externally, without having
their profitability being affected and even developing a certain degree
of flexibility that through processes of rapid adaptation, are able to
obtain extra, monetary or intangible benefits derived from adverse
and/or unpredictable circumstances (Minolli, 2005; Erol et al., 2010).
Thus resilience becomes a fundamental capacity not only for compa-
nies but also as a last resort for the economies of nations, which means
it's very important to know more about it and especially to understand
the tools that businesses can use to strengthen that ability. However,
in spite of its importance, there are few contributions that seek to de-
fine the concept or characterize the most resilient companies (Staw et
al., 1981; Bell, 2001; Sheffi, 2005; Williams et al,. 2014)
with a special lack of studies that analyze the tools that enhance resi-
lience in SMES (Rahman et al,. 2014; Fiksel et al,. 2015). Very im-
portant question because the SMEs are the most abundant business
organization type in all developed economies, and also have some ge-
neral characteristics recognized by the literature unlike large compa-
nies, such as its small size, reduced availability of resources, less profes-
sionalized management (Soto-Acosta al,. 2016).
At the same time, the importance of adequate information and kno-
wledge management, along with the correct usage of ICT, has been
talked about for some time now as ways to improve efficiency and
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