Balancing technology-focused and solution-focused strategies in the high-tech industry

Companies in the high-tech industry can pursue a range of strategies around delivering value to their customers. A technology focus strategy enables organizations to offer to their customers products that feature best-in-class performance along certain parameters. A solution focus strategy enables organizations to offer their customers an integrated set of products and services that are customized for their specific contexts. A tradeoff often exists between the two strategies and organizations have to choose the mix of resource allocation between technology investments and solution investments. Determining the appropriate balance between technology focus and solution focus is often an area of struggle for high-tech companies. This thesis uses literature research to identify existing frameworks for determining where a company should be on the continuum between technology focus strategy and solution focus strategy and when a company should shift, expand, or contract its footprint along that continuum. The thesis will then examine a sample of companies that occupy varying technology/solution focus positions, evaluate the applicability of the frameworks in the case of these companies as well as use the frameworks to try to justify any repositioning that those companies may have undergone or are currently undergoing and possibly to make suggestions on a future strategic course.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Bassalee, Wassim

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jonathan L. S. Byrnes.

• Engineering Systems Division.
• System Design and Management Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100356

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/100356