What is the impact of technological changes on the society - MBA Notes

Answer:
Ever since the invention of the wheel, technology has always had an impact on society. Technological advancements helped people to work more efficiently, helped people travel faster, helped treat diseases, and made lives comfortable.

 

Effects of technologies on business:

· Reduced costs of operations: 

Technology helps is doing things more efficiently. And day by day new ways of getting things done more cost efficiently. Different companies use different technologies for reducing manufacturing and

administrative costs.

· New product and new market creation: 

Technology allows companies to introduce new products in the market either completely new or improvement on a previous product. For example: Invention of flash drives that replaced tapes, music players are much smaller today than it used to be.

· Adaptation to changes in scale and format: 

New technologies help add more features while reducing size and cost. This focuses on how the devices support the different features. For example, the mobile can support the email, browsing and so on.

· Improved customer service: 

Technology also helps improve customer service by providing speedy interaction with customers via telephone, email, online ticketing, remote troubleshooting etc.

 
· Reorganised administrative operations:

Technology also aids in administration of organisations. For example, the introduction of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in the bank has reduced the employee effort that is required of distributing the cash at the cash counter.

Relationship between technology and competition

An organisation with a superior technology always has the competitive advantage in the market. So in order to catch up with the current market trends, an organisation has to constantly engage in strategic forecasting and adequate research and development activities to improve on existing products and also new products. Managing technology includes four components:


· New Ventures: 

New ventures are important to business to expand in the highly competitive market. Development of the new products and creation of the new markets are highly important for survival of a business.

· Innovation: 

Innovation means finding creative and improved ways to do things. For example: Now with smart phones we cannot just talk but get sms, emails, surf the internet. Such addition of new features becomes useful. Innovation is not just related to products but with business ideas and strategies.

· Research: 

Research plays an important role in an organisation to finds new ways of improving a technology, and helps companies come out with new products and ideas. Without a strong research department, a company will fall behind others.

· Research Infrastructure: 

Research is an important aspect of an organisation to keep coming up with new products and improving their products. And research infrastructure is what aids to research. Without adequate infrastructure research is handicapped.

Key issues in managing technological innovation:

· Technology and long-term cycles: 

There are some economists who argue that technology affects growth and recession in the world economy. The infrastructure is useful for maturation of the technologies. When the down turn starts to come up again then organisations has to invest the capital equipment that is based on the new technologies.

· Technology and comparative advantage: 

Firms will have more value when it has both the comparative advantage and also the technological lead. Such firms do not just operate within their localized area but are able to spread out.

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