Latecomer Strategies in Acquiring Technology of Complex Products and Systems (Case Study: Iran’s Oil Well Measurement Systems)

Drilling industry and its technical services are among the complex and advanced technology-based industries in the cycle of oil exploration and production. In this regard, the logging services role as one of the pillars of technical services is very important due to technological complexity and importance of the results in the evaluation of oil and gas reservoirs. The complexity had caused small and medium companies in Iran not to be able to produce logging equipment by themselves due to financial and scientific constraints. Through the review of the articles and books written on this subject, this research has studied the factors affecting success in technology acquisition and then has categorized them in five dimensions as technological, technical, market, strategic, and financial factors. Then, through exploratory interviews with experts and theme analysis, the factors having the greatest impact on the acquisition of logging equipment technology have been identified and their opinion on various proposed methods in scientific resources for the acquisition of technology have been obtained. Several published methods have been reviewed. During interviews, some major effective characteristics were introduced by the experts which could not satisfy existing methods or some principal dimensions were ignored. The results of the research and the case study of National Iranian Drilling Company show that the managed innovation network is the most appropriate method for the acquisition of the above mentioned technology of the National Iranian Drilling Company.

Keywords:

Technology Strategies , Complex Product and System , Measurement Systems