High Technology Company - Concept, Nature, Characteristics

摘要

The importance of existence of a strong and dynamic high technology companies sector in the current world economy is enormous as it largely influences the potential for global competitiveness of individual nations or regions. In the developed, post-industrial economies the high technology companies sector is commonly regarded as the area with the largest use of and dependence on the so called special means of production - knowledge and human resources. These means are constantly created, which enables not only competition among individual companies but also has a positive effect on the surroundings (traditional industries, level of science, etc.). High technology sector also requires continuous and intense innovative activities as well as large research and development investments. Most of the previous studies of the high technology sector have focused on the issues related to methodology of measuring the research and development activities and its results, the amounts, structure and sources of financing, institutional solutions and the role of the state in stimulating the scientific and technological progress as well as on the issues of technological advancement in a wider context of innovativeness. However, there have been few studies of high technology companies' functioning and management. This article is an attempt to define the concept of a high tech company and identify its characteristics in comparison to a traditional, industrial enterprise, considering the basic organisation units. It has been shown that every HT company, apart from the fact of operating in the high technology sector, is an innovative enterprise based on knowledge and the use of modern IT technology.