technology

Technology is the application of human knowledge to work. (Drucker, 1985, p 11)

OED: "A discourse or treatise on an art or arts; the scientific study of the pratical or industrial arts."

Technology is the heart of innovation. Innovation is at the heart of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is necessary for competitive advantage to be produced or sustained. It is advances in technology, advances in knowledge applied to work, producing ever greater value, that causes never ending creative destruction.

Technology takes many forms -- from materials to machines, from information systems to management practices, from governance systems to business models -- all of which seek to more effectively apply human knowledge to work.

Technology domains -- technology includes, and is often investigated, by the following domains, often in the context of innovation

• materials innovation
• material formation process innovation
• research process innovation
• product innovation
• process innovation
• marketing innovation
• organizational innovation
• management innovation
• strategic innovation
• delivery of services innovation
• governance innovation

Beinhocker's technology construct (Beinhocker, 2006) --
Beinhocker's explanation of technology provides a framework useful to understanding technology's role in strategy and innovation --

• Physical Technology - Methods and designs for transforming matter, energy, and information from one state into another in pursuit of a goal or goals.
• Social Technology - Methods and designs for organizing people in pursuit of a goal or goals. Methods for creating order in the social realm to meet human needs.
• Business Plans (Designs) - Business plans play the role of melding physical and social technologies under a strategy, then operationally expressing the resulting designs in the economic world.