Technology governance
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"TECHNOLOGY GOVERNANCE" is the system by which the current and future use of technology is directed and controlled.
According to Streams Model of Technology by Azhar Zia-ur-Rehman there are three types of technologies that an enterprise may employ.
1. Industrial technology -- the body of knowledge that is specific to a certain industry or business and without which that industry of business cannot operate at all
2. Business technology -- the formalized processes, procedures and rules that are employed to run an enterprise based on a certain industrial technology
3. Information technology -- the resources used to acquire, process, store and disseminate information generated or used by the employed business technologies.
Technology governance also means the governance, i.e., the steering between the different sectors—state, business, and NGOs—of the development of technology. The concept is based on the notion of innovation and of techno-economic paradigm shifts according to the theories of Joseph A. Schumpeter, Christopher Freeman, Carlota Perez, etc.
The idea here is that certain periods in economic development are dominated by a paradigm-leading technology that influences through finance mechanisms, organizational change, greater returns, etc. Also, the economic and social sphere to such an extent that an entire paradigm is coined by them. Currently, that paradigm-leading technology is information and communications technology (ICT). According to Innovation Theory (and empirical findings as well), states, regions, or other communities do not automatically promote, or even go into, these key technologies, but rather need to be guided there by active intervention, by the State sector (in close cooperation and coordination). Technology governance, (as a field of scholarly inquiry and academic instruction) is therefore about how this is theoretically and practically done, which institutions are optimal for such a venue, how the education of administrators have to look like if they are going to have the administrative capacity to deal with such matters, etc.
Technology governance is a central focus and is part of the Lisbon Strategy, the main economic and social development program of the European Union.
Technology governance is a public policy concept; it is not to be confused with inner-corporate arrangements of organisation (corporate governance) and IT arrangements, sometimes called "Information Technology Governance".
