Fundamental factors determining the direction of technological development have been discussed over time in the field of technology research. In particular, studies of technological development based on indeterministic views have been actively conducted recently. This point raises an intellectually interesting issue, because indeterministic views of technology are opposed to deterministic ones, which have held a dominant position in technology research. On that basis, this paper examines previous studies of technological development in terms of their methodological premise, and proposes a theoretical framework, called the “structuration theory of technological systems.” While this new framework can provide insights toward integrating conflicting perspectives on the process of technological development, it also reveals critical problems inherent in a deterministic view of technology.

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This paper examines the organizational capabilities in the pharmaceutical research and development. Based on interviews with major Japanese pharmaceutical companies and statistical analysis of published data, this study shows that the go or no−go decision−making capability and the protocol design capability are significant organizational capabilities that differ among companies and affect research and development performance.

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The majority of previous studies in strategic human resource management (SHRM) have positioned the decentralization of human resource management (HRM) as the practice of delegating work process authority, such as employee involvement. In contrast to this approach, this paper examines the issue of decentralization from the perspective of the decision−making structures involved, in an attempt to scrutinize the impact on organizational performance from the decentralization of the implementation of employee sourcing and development, evaluation, compensation, and other HRM practices. As a result of analyses using data from establishments in the United States, in addition to compatibility between HRM practices and business strategies (external fit) and compatibility between individual HRM practices (internal fit) stressed in existing studies, the author suggests that effective fits between HRM practices and decision−making structures offer the potential to raise the level of organizational performance.

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