Development in the Caribbean has historically depended upon the exploitation of natural resources from contributing sectors such as energy, agriculture and tourism. Recent dynamics including depleting non-renewable reserves, destructive climatic phenomenon and global economic factors highlight the urgent need for Caribbean economies to shift their revenue-generating base to more resilient sectors. Against the backdrop of economies of scale, the initial findings of a recent study of the innovation and technology acquisition practices of firms in the Caribbean support the need for a collaborative approach toward technology management (TM). This paper presents a research initiative on the development and adoption of collaborative TM efforts among Caribbean manufacturing firms with emphasis on the management of their technological assets. A conceptual collaborative TM framework is proposed. It is anticipated that the outcomes of this investigation would be of value to 1) the manufacturing practitioners who strive for gaining a competitive advantage with collaboration and 2) the researchers who conduct further empirical inquiries into the collaborative TM capabilities among manufacturing firms in the Caribbean.
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