The effect of technological, commercial and human resources on the use of new technology

Abstract

Our objective in this paper is to analyze the determinants of the use of process technologies among in manufacturing firms. We go beyond more traditional approaches and consider the role of complementarities in technology adoption at two levels. First, we adapt Teece’s (1986) framework study the incentives to use new technology that stem from investments in the knowledge base of the firm and in marketing assets. We also take into account the quality of the services provided by employees. Second, we analyze whether technology use is conditioned by a system effect that arises from the use of related technologies. We test our hypotheses on a representative sample of manufacturing firms.