What Roles Do Firms Play In The Generation And Diffusion Of New Scientific And Technological Knowledge?

Different sorts of organisations, their structures, goals and perspectives, and how they recognise and respond to obstacles can create a plethora of chances and pathways for creating and disseminating new information around the world. Almost everyone on this world has benefited from technology and science. It has altered our way of life. It has also created new difficulties and issues that must be addressed strategically. Firms are already at the forefront in responding to environmental changes and issues. They address these issues using tactics that rely on support systems such as technology and scientific study.

Technological and scientific developments and methods are increasingly supporting today's economic and social exchanges. Most jobs and business possibilities have benefited greatly from knowledge of sophisticated technology in various fields and areas. The objective of a business firm, according to Dorf (2001, p. 39), is to create value for all of its stakeholders. The company is already generating and disseminating new sets of information as it strives to produce fresh riches for its shareholders and valuable products and services for its customers. This includes the development of new scientific and technological information that will be embraced by society and other enterprises in the future. For the success of its business, a company must then lead its market through effective technical and scientific innovation, sound resource management, and a solid technological strategy.

 Higher food production, effective resource management, faster access to essential and mission-critical information, and increased company competitiveness will all benefit from improved technology and scientific knowledge. Academic Master is essay writing services UK-based company that offers students all around the world thousands of free essays. Through numerous options for research and innovation, technology has the greatest potential to provide corporate sustainability and viability.

While it is undeniable that today's businesses play an important part in the development of scientific and technological information, most of their contribution is focused on how they formulate strategies for incorporating new knowledge into their operations.

Many business and decision-making processes have been recognised to benefit from technology. Technology strategy should be a critical component of any strategic planning process. Incorporating cutting-edge technology without thorough consideration of other organizational challenges is a recipe for disaster. With the advancement of technology, managers now have a wide range of options. Many CEOs and managers are taking use of the advancement of technology to rethink their corporate processes (Irving and Higgins, 1991). Many people still believe that technology and scientific understanding can solve many organisational difficulties. Other CEOs, unfortunately, see technology as a panacea for a variety of organisational issues. The advent of technology can sometimes exacerbate organisational and societal issues.

When it comes to the generation and dissemination of technology and scientific knowledge, businesses play a significant role. They can be technology enhancers, market identifiers, consumer exploration sources, and information exchange gateways using their technological and scientific knowledge. Powerful technology and scientific knowledge, on the other hand, have the capacity to cause immense harm or great good to humanity (O'Brien, 2001). 

Business competition has resulted in a great deal of advanced technology and scientific research and development. The necessity for corporations to compete with one another in the introduction of new technologies that may alter the political, economic, and social environment has intensified as a result of greater investment in monetary and labour resources. Gene Amdahl wanted to build a new computer company to compete with International Business Machines (IBM) (Goodman and Lawless p. 66).  He realised he needed a fresh technological design, as well as a service and support infrastructure and appropriate library software. He made the decision to build an IBM-compatible computer. Regardless of the technological marvels he incorporated into his new computer, it would run all IBM software. This method has substantially improved his customers' and his own access to future IBM technologies. While his company adapted technology from another company, it was able to develop and establish a fresh set of ideas that not only improved his company's image but also IBM's.

High-tech companies that generate a lot of technological and scientific knowledge have been able to identify new markets in computer science, biotechnology, genetic engineering, robotics, and other sectors. These businesses rely largely on scientific and engineering expertise. 

At the age of 19, Michael Dell began developing personal computers in his University of Texas dorm room (Ferrell and Hirt, 1996). Dell Computer, with $2.9 billion in revenues, is one of the world's leading PC companies because to his revolutionary ideas and prototype procedures. He was able to identify strategic markets for his PC Company all over the world in various situations because of his company's ability to employ technology to execute decision-making and focus on new client wants and tastes. Other industry players followed him as he moved to other markets. These industry actors opened up new avenues for further investigation. Dell offered directly to consumers through its toll-free telephone line in the early 1990s (Schneider and Perry, 1990). It eventually expanded its sales on the Internet and now accounts for a substantial portion of its total sales. The company's overhead has been reduced as a result of this strategy. Dell's strategy for the new millennium includes a major web presence. According to company leaders, more than half of their revenues will come through the internet within the next several years. A sophisticated architecture of communication devices and networks, Dell servers, and Microsoft electronic commerce applications are supporting such brisk online purchases.

Changes in corporate marketing due to technological advancements are not new, just like market globalisation. However, technological advancements are projected to bring about new marketing methods that have not before existed (Dwyer and Tanner, 1999). Du Pont, for example, has created a Rapid Market Assessment technique that allows the corporation to decide whether a market (typically a previously untapped country or region) is worth developing (Bob, 1996).  The analysis yields a customer-centric perspective of the international market, regardless of the country's or region's economic development.

The nature of business-customer relationship is changing due to technological advancements. When properly implemented, both parties benefit. Technology can be utilised to improve contact between businesses and customers in areas such as retail marketing. 

Supermarkets, department stores, specialty stores, membership clubs, and other businesses—hundreds of thousands of them—all use point-of-sale scanning equipment. Retailers can finish client transactions fast, collect sales data, cut costs, and alter inventory levels (Berman and Evans, 1998). When dinner is finished, the server brings the check-and a sleek box that opens up like a check presentation folder, revealing buttons and a miniscreen. The waiter delivers it over and then walks away quietly. You verify the tab, select the payment option (credit card or ATM card), insert the card into a slot, and enter your personal identification number or PIN by following the instructions on the screen. You can then enter a tip—either a particular amount or a percentage if you want the device to figure it out for you. A blinking light appears after the transaction is completed. The waiter is summoned, and the device is removed, and the receipt is printed on a different terminal (Berman and Evans, 1998). As a result, the restaurant as a business was able to come up with new strategies to encourage guests to explore and apply this new mechanism further. This resulted in the introduction of a new set of methods for charging clients in a different business scenario (like electricity and water bills). With this picture, new technology innovation can be extremely beneficial to several industry players.

Customers sign their identities on a computer screen using signature capture. At Sears, the cardholder signs a paper receipt—which becomes the cardholder copy—on top of a pressure-sensitive pad that collects, stores, and displays the signature on the checkout terminal screen so a clerk may compare it to the signature on the back of the credit card. Electronic signatures are not stored separately and can only be printed along with the whole sales receipt, according to a booklet available from Sears. Again, customer-centered innovation has spawned a slew of new concepts for other businesses to investigate.

Information Interchange Gateway

Nowadays, the web, or the Internet, has sparked a lot of academic curiosity. People use the internet to retrieve and send information. It's utilised for practically every type of commercial and personal interaction, including education and trade. The online publication of the monthly Journal of Biological Chemistry by Stanford University Library's HighWire Press began in early 1995. (JBC). It had published 240 online journals with 237,711 articles by March 2001. (Chowdhury and Chowdhury, 2001). Science, technology, medicine, and other scientific subjects are covered in the journals. The electronic versions of scholarly journals provided added dimensions to the information provided in printed journals by adding links among authors, articles, and citations, advanced searching techniques, high-resolution images and multimedia, and interactivity to HighWire's strategy of online publishing scholarly journals. The dimensions provided readers with limitless opportunities to continue what they had started. The importance of businesses has been exaggerated. Technical and scientific information can be disseminated in the shortest amount of time to the greatest number of people.

Consider the enormous cost savings now that millions of Internet users may work from home – or at the very least, dial into the workplace rather than driving there. Many businesses are turning to the Internet to save money on office space, supplies, and transportation. Email and other electronic documents save energy by eliminating the need for paper. People who are online have access to the majority of the benefits that technology and science have to offer. It offers them the ability to distinguish between what is and is not useful. Newspapers are going online as well. Telecommunications and the Internet, along with renewable energy, are arguably the technologies with the greatest potential for delivering sustainability, and the vision of integrated optical communication networks is compelling enough for people to understand the underlying role that technology firms play in today's technology-based society. Computer networks and the Internet have essentially been the century's most significant technological accomplishments. And the opportunities for businesses to expand their usage of it are expanding.