Research characteristics and agenda of technology management discipline in Turkey

Abstract

Despite the growing importance of "Technology Management" (TM) field in advanced countries since 1990s, it is rather new for developing countries such as Turkey. Considering the diversity of needs and concerns in different countries, the evolution of TM discipline can be expected to follow different paths to include different national experiences and to consider unique national needs and concerns in relation with technology management. Therefore, to what extent this diversity is reflected in the mainstream TM research agenda is an important issue. Thus, the aim of this study is in two folds; first, to examine how the general research characteristics and agenda of TM discipline have evolved in the academic research in Turkey, and next, to what extent they have converged or diverged with the patterns of mainstream TM research in international journals, by analyzing the TM articles published by Turkish academics both in the national and international scientific journals. The findings of this research reveal that the TM discipline in Turkey indicate both divergent and convergent characteristics when compared with the results of recent studies about developed and developing countries. In addition, a significant difference is observed about how these characteristics are reflected in national and international journals.