Studies exploring the role of technology foresight in the formulation of industry policy formulation by governments as well as adoption of new technologies by companies have been growing at a pace commensurate with the imperative need to gain competitive advantage. The extant research literature comprises topics ranging from evolutionary trends of technologies to technology strategies and from industrial competitiveness to measuring innovation – at both country and company levels. The proposed research focuses on the Indian machine tools industry, which is vital for the survival, growth and profitability of the manufacturing sector. Wide acceptance of advanced machine tool technologies, especially machining centres, has been largely driven by increasing demand from user industries (such as automobile, aerospace, and medical devices), technological advancements (such as robotics, cyber-physical systems and internet of things) and international cost competitiveness. Despite being placed in the 12th position in production and 8th in the consumption of machine tools in the world, India’s share in the global machine tool production is a meagre 1%. Industry-specific reports indicated that lack of advanced technological capabilities, inadequate capacities to meet domestic/export market demand and inability to face global price competition were the key factors behind the lacklustre performance of the industry.

The present study aims to utilise multivariate statistical techniques to model evolution of machine tool technologies and analyse technology strategies of machine tool manufacturers. The broad research themes of the study aim to analyse: (a) historical trends of technological characteristics, (b) link between product features and a firm’s technology strategy and (c) impact of patenting strategy on a firm’s performance. A few machine tool firms (domestic and foreign) have been selected to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed quantitative models. Secondary data has been compiled from government statistics, industry/trade publications and company websites. The study findings are expected to augment technology policy planning at the national level and technology strategy formulation at the firm level.