Interdisciplinary groups perception on impact of technology: A study in Petro-Chemical sector

In today’s competitive business environment firms who can afford to invest on superior technology are in general found to be more efficient. In technology driven industries companies tend to encash upon the benefits of the superior technology, engage in continuous innovation and invest in R&D to gain competitive advantage. Notwithstanding this phenomenon, adoption of superior technology by any industry is extremely challenging. Even, Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) in a developing country are often incapable of adopting the latest technology. Because they are expensive and moreover it leads to disruption to the traditional way of doing business and even different managerial functions differ on the adoption of technology.

This research paper collected perception regarding impact of technology by three broad managerial functions such as Operations, Marketing, Product development & Innovation of a large Petrochemical company. With the help of Conjoint Analysis, Part worth and Ideal Achievement Index (AI) have been estimated. These estimates enable us to assess the perception of three inter disciplinary managerial groups regarding impact of technology on the downstream units (nearly 500 companies) of a Petro-Chemical Company in India.