An industrial technology roadmap for supporting public R&D planning

Technology roadmap is one of the useful tools for managing R&D planning as well as identifying the future of technological progress at firms, various levels of government agencies, and other organizations. This study presents an industrial technology roadmapping process for use in public R&D programs, affecting firms' strategic behavior under this umbrella. The primary purpose of this paper is to address evolutionary aspects of industrial technology roadmap for the South Korea case and provide a more advanced framework of public R&D planning. Since 2000, technology roadmapping has been initiated by the government agency in South Korea, and, more recently, this practice has become popularized in small- and medium-sized companies as well. Despite the popularity, practitioners have some difficulties in finding practical guidelines and systematic processes for developing technology roadmaps applicable to R&D planning within an organization. The framework of industrial technology roadmapping developed by the Korea Institute for the Advancement of Technology can be applied or modified to the R&D planning process of similar projects. This roadmapping process deals with a variety of industries with different characteristics, and provides a systematic mechanism to predict future market demands and technology innovations. Finally, this paper shed some lights on the major challenges, potential roadblocks and proposed recommendations in roadmapping process.