A study in long-term technology strategy at an American chemical company

In the mid of its nearly 200 years history, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (Du Pont) made a transformation from a gun powder company to a diversified chemical company with intensive R&D capability. Now the company is making another major change into a company with integration of biotechnology and chemistry. This thesis analyzed Du Font's long-term technology strategy. The company is going to make a strong commitment in development of biotechnology as well as integration of biotechnology and chemistry. The company will utilize existing materials businesses as a cash source. The thesis concludes that the company should keep its strategy. However, considering that Du Pont was relatively late to have made commitment in biotechnology, the company will have a tough time. Also, the fact that Du Pont has strong capability in scientific research could arise an organizational issue.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2000

Author dc:creator

• Nakagawa, Osamu, 1964-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lester C. Thurow.

• Sloan School of Management.

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/1721.1/9182

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/9182