Identifying the Key Factors Inuencing Technology Management in the Power Plant and Electric Power Industry, and Prioritizing Factors Using Network Analytical Process (ANP): Evidence from MAPNA Group

This research has been conducted in order to identify and determine the order of inuential factors on technology management in MAPNA Group. After studying the related literature and collecting conducted researches and experts’ opinions, 71 inuential indicators were identied in the technology management of power plants and the electric power industry. Afterward, the opinions of experts in the industry and university concerning the inuence of these factors were collected by designing a questionnaire and using Likert scaling, and next, decisions were made regarding these indicators. After this process, 51 indicators were approved and categorized into 6 factors and 12 dimensions, based on which the nal questionnaire was designed and distributed among 32 managers and experts of MAPNA Group. Using structural equations and Smart PLS software, the research model was tted and ultimately, surface six indicators were approved for the designed model. Also, the ANP technique was utilized in order to determine the order of factors and the result illustrated that factors namely “propagation“ and “acquisition“ were given the 1st and 2nd order respectively and factor “protection“ was given the last order. According to the conducted researches in the technology management of MAPNA Group, all six facts factors have a signicant inuence on technology management and hence, all six factors must be paid attention to. In case such a thing does not happen, reaching success in technology management will fail.


Introduction
One of today's concerns of organization managers is to improve business performance and reach high pro t margin. In this vein, managers are putting their effort into nding in uential factors on the performance of their organization and determining the most crucial and in uential factors that will guarantee the survival of their organization in the future [25].
The concept of technology management was developed in 1980. Technology management is a system that simpli es the creation, acquisition, and use of technology, and it includes certain exclusive liabilities that are guiding the activities to serve the men and realize humankind's needs. Among the most important matters/problems that resulted in the advancement of technology management ways, the following items can be named: research, invention, development, etc. This type of management is highly inclusive and consists of all technological dimensions, namely policy making, planning, transferring, developing technology, R&D, education, selection, and evaluation [6].
Technology management can be a great help to the stable competitive advantage. This matter can be explained by the fact that creating and preserving competitive advantage relies highly on minimized expenses, more than operational effectiveness. Related to high technology corporations, creating competitive advantages is highly associated with the capability to manage technology assets [16].
Technology management will help adjust the changing conditions of the environment and technological development, and the creation of these changes. It is also considered a challenger in order to promote existing technologies and generate new knowledge and skill in response to today's competitive business environment. From the viewpoint of the "National Research Council", technology management is an interdisciplinary eld for planning, developing, and implementing technological improvements in order to form and realize the strategic and operational objectives of an organization.
Hence, the objective of this research is to identify and determine the order of in uential factors on the technology management of MAPNA Group and there has been no research conducted associated with power plants and the electric power industry. Therefore, this research is highly innovative.

Literature Review
Complexity, connection, and increased speed of technological developments are considered large challenges for technology-intensive organizations that intensi ed the necessity of focusing on technology management activities to effectively respond to performance-related problems. Therefore, a fully structured and understandable technology management process will be viable in order to guarantee the constant and e cient allocation of resources that will be a help in the rm's success and preserving its place in the competition arena. Therefore, being aware of the cause and effect relationship between performance and activities of technology management, followed by technological developments and the effects of designing and evaluating e cient technology management is highly viable and important for an organization [2].
Technology management seeks to reach high e ciency and also help the organization act in an e cient manner in order to the desired objectives. Hence, technology management addresses this matter "the potential to compete in the developing work market", to guarantee survival. Acquisition of competitive advantage is a process by which a rm will attempt to dominate the other. Technology management should be able to guarantee the rm's competitiveness/ rms power to compete. In local, regional, and global markets, the competitive advantage of rms will be guaranteed by producing or providing products and services at competitive prices and using agile methods [18].
Due to the technological changes in both products and processes, technology management is one of the most important operational programs, management of which is necessary for business success. This work includes hardware systems and human and organizational aspects [5].
According to "National Research Council", technology management is a process consisting of planning, guiding, controlling, coordinating, developing, and implementing technological capabilities in order to shape and accomplish the strategic objectives of an organization. Educating technology management is signi cantly important in order to solve problems in organizations [24].
At the national level, technology management consists of subjects such as the in uence of technological developments on people, their educational needs associated with technology, the effect of technology on health and security, and environmental consequences of technology. At the governmental and organizational level, technology policies are in fact a framework in order to use technological changes for the bene t of society and organizational staff [17].
Technology management is de ned as a process that enables the company by managing all the activities to utilize domestic and outsourced technologies, combine the new products (innovation in the product), methods used to produce them (innovation in the process), and deliver them to the market e ciently [11].
Technology management is about managing selection, acquisition, utilization (exploitation), development (improvement), and promotion of technologies [19]. Since this eld of technology management is new, the tools of this branch own exclusive features. Most of the utilized tools in this eld are inspired by the tools used in other elds. Schumpeter (1928), known German economist, believed that creativity in competitive capitalism emerges exclusively in the structure of new rms. In other words, creativity occurs in competitive capitalism as the number of industrial families increases. Schumpeter believed that the pro t of entrepreneurs is the main source of industrial development and success, and according to the innovative entrepreneurs, the process of creativity in the industry is the key to all phenomena that will lead to value and wealth creation. All the entrepreneurial activities are passing through the channel of innovative development and technology management. The relationship between technology management and operational performance in gas measurement tools (gauge) manufacturing companies". The objective of this research is to identify indicators and review the relationship between technology management and operational performance, and also to review the role of technology management in gaining competitive advantage, as the most important resource for performance prediction. After conducting the data analysis, research ndings illustrated that technology management has the capability to predict the operational performance of a company. In other words, improving technology management will lead to better and higher operational performance. Indicators of operational performance in this research are as follows: performance, e ciency, quality, and innovation [14].
Ghahremani (1396) investigated the effect of technology management and R&D management on organizational performance in terms of quality and innovation and in the companies with more than 300 participants from the Ardebil and East Azerbaijan provinces. This research is a descriptive study in which the role of technology management and R&D management was tested in order to predict organizational performance with regard to quality and innovation. Indicators namely quality and innovation are the most important sources for organizations to gain competitive advantage and they were analyzed using structural equations modeling. Findings of this research show that technology management, R&D, and development are capable of anticipating the qualitative performances of an organization but they are more capable of anticipating the innovative performances of the organization [10].
Ansari et al. (2016) conducted a research in order to review the in uence of technology management activities on the agility capabilities of an organization (a case study of Yazd Rolling Mill Co.) where descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and structural equations modeling were utilized. The objective of this research is to review the effect of technology management activities on the agility capabilities of an organization. The research model was inspired by the previous literature and shows that technology management activities include six activities, namely acquisition, identi cation, utilization, education, protection, and selection. Moreover, agility capabilities include four components as follows: tness, accountability, exibility, and speed. According to data analysis, all six activities affect the agility capabilities of the organization under this study directly [4].
Arana et al. (2018) conducted a research in which they reviewed the contextual factors in uencing the relationship between strategic management, technology management, and performance and the research is associated with 14 countries and 241 companies in two elds of electronics and machine manufacturing. One of the objectives of this research is to respond to these questions: "Do strategic management and technology management improve operational performance?" and "Do contextual variables in uence the operational performance?". According to the hierarchical regression analysis, technology management can positively affect operational performance [5].
According to the previous literature presented in this section, the research methodology has been explained as follows in order to theoretically support the research subject.

Methodology
Since this research is systematically explaining the current condition, the research is a descriptive study.
Moreover, it is a eld study due to the direct connection of the researcher with phenomena under the study and it is considered applied research since factors in uencing technology management in the electric power industry are identi ed and evaluated, and then used in the same industry. Ultimately, this research is a case study since it is conducted in MAPNA Group. Due to the limited statistical population that can answer the research questionnaire, sampling was (done) in a full-census manner. By using a questionnaire and conducting interviews with experts, the data were gathered. Cronbach's alpha was utilized in order to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire? Cronbach's alpha is opting to be 0.821 using SPSS software, which illustrates that there is an internal correlation between the questions and as a result, the existence of homogeneous questions. The questionnaire's reliability was approved according to the judgment of experts.
After studying the related literature and collecting conducted researches and experts' opinions, 71 in uential indicators were identi ed in the technology management of power plants and the electric power industry. Afterward, the opinions of experts in the industry and university concerning the in uence of these factors were collected, and then decisions were made concerning these indicators. After screening, 51 indicators were approved and categorized into 6 factors and 12 dimensions. The main identi ed dimensions are as follows: utilization, acquisition, protection, identi cation, selection, propagation, development, and improvement. Based on these dimensions, the nal questionnaire was designed and distributed among 32 managers and experts of MAPNA Group and then, the results were collected. Using structural equations and Smart PLS software, the research model was tted, and ultimately, the order of in uential factors on technology management was determined using the ANP technique and Super Decisions software.

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The theoretical model of research is illustrated in Figure 1, which is obtained after reviewing the previous literature, conducted researches, and also the opinions of experts.

Findings Of Research First Question
To answer the rst question of research, the main questionnaire was designed that includes 51 questions (Table 1) and then the ndings were analyzed using Smart PLS software in order to validate the research model. Ultimately, the research model, as shown in Figure 2, illustrates the initial structural equations model of research along with coe cients of factor loads. All the questions with a fuctor load less than 0.7 were eliminated from the research model (Hair, 2006). According to Figure 2, 15 indicators were eliminated in order to obtain a homogenous research model. Findings of model tests, including re ective measurement models, structural models, and general models, are presented in Table 2. Ultimately, Figure 3 illustrates the structural model when the path coe cients are estimated and Figure 4 shows the structural model when path coe cients are signi cant. Next, network analytical process (ANP) and Super Decisions software were utilized as follows in order to determine the order of factors: A) Network analytical process (ANP) and its process Super Decisions software was utilized in order to analyze the model and determine the order of factors and indicators under study, which in fact executes the three steps of network analytical process and model analysis in a software setting.
Step 1 -De ning the model structure and forming an analysis network In this step, the main clusters of the model are formed using a conceptual model of research and its objectives. In each cluster, there are sets of indicators that are connected as a node and also, linked to other nodes in other clusters. Figure 7 illustrates the network structure of ANP and the type of connection between elements using Super Decisions software.
Step 2 -Pairwise comparisons and allocating weight to the indicators of the ANP model ANA control hierarchy is a set of indicators utilized to compare the interactions that might exist within the network. A numerical range of 1 to 9 has been considered in order to allocate weights to the criteria in the ANP model. According to this method, the network will be divided into smaller branches and each pairwise comparison is established for each element per branch, such as J, relative to another element in the branch J.
Step 3 -Forming super weight matrix according to the data According to the pairwise comparison conducted in the previous step, a super weight matrix is established and the weight of each criterion and indicator is de ned and determined based on the vector system. In other words, each column of the super matrix consists of several speci c vectors that determine the total of relative weight vectors of criteria and indicators.

B) Determining the order and signi cance of criteria in comparison to other elements
Each group in the model has its own speci c results. As a result of extensive research results, some of the most important and major conditions obtained from executing ANP are mentioned in this section. The results of indicators weight, which are obtained using Supers Decisions software, are illustrated in Table   3. According to the output of the super decisions program, the order of technology management factors is obtained using the ANP method as shown in Diagram 1.
According to the data of questionnaires and output obtained from PLS software signi cant coe cients and as it can be seen in Table 4, all coe cients of signi cance between the factors are bigger than the absolute value of 1.96, and this illustrates that all factors of technology management with a level of signi cance (95%) have been approved.  In this research, 51 indicators were identi ed and then, categorized into 6 factors and 12 dimensions and the research results illustrated that factors, namely acquisition, identi cation, utilization, education, protection, and selection have a signi cant impact on technology management. Among these 6 factors, the "acquisition" factor has the highest impact on the technology management. Propagation is the second in uential factor and the following factors are placed in the next orders: development and improvements, identi cation and selection, protection, and utilization. According to the results obtained from Smart PLS software, indicators with the highest r 2 account for the highest share in explaining variance, improvement, and anticipation of related factors behavior. Therefore, these matters should be focused on more.
According to the results, the following suggestions are presented: Related to the "identi cation and selection" factor, the indicator "identi cation of needed technologies" (IN1) has the highest r 2 , meaning that it accounts for the highest share in explaining the variance of identi cation and selection factor. Hence, companies are recommended to establish courses and form teams in order to scout the technology. Related to the "acquisition" factor, on the other hand, the indicator "drafting the technical appendixes" (CO3) has the highest r 2, and hence, companies are recommended to be inspired by technical appendixes of other projects in order to promote this indicator. Related to the "utilization" factor, the indicator "planning for supply network" (SU5) also accounts for the most share in explaining this factor, and hence, companies are recommended to deploy a system in order to identify and evaluate the suppliers in order to promote this indicator. Related to the "development and improvement" factor, the indicator "commercialization of improved product" (DP2) has the highest r 2 , and hence, companies are suggested to introduce newly developed products to their related companies in order to promote this indicator. On the other hand, related to the "propagation" factor", the indicator "propagation of technology at organizational level" (GE1) has the highest r 2, and hence companies are suggested to propagate the technology in the form of a comprehensive plan for a certain group of staff who should be get acquainted with this technology and this will help promote this indicator. The factor "acquisition" is given the second order and therefore, the following suggestion can be presented in order to improve its dimensions and indicators: increasing the number of courses of general and specialized negotiations according to the country that holds the technology, drafting the contracts, promoting the simulation of negotiation session for success in acquiring the technology, drafting the technical appendixes and determining the technology acquisition schedule.
The factor "development time improvement" was given the third order and therefore, the following suggestion can be presented in order to improve its dimensions and indicators: promoting the technology level by preparing long term technology development programs, to utilize the customers feedback in order to improve and change business process and documenting the promoted technology, developing new products and creating innovation in the products, commercializing the improved products, empowering the products, developing the product potency and products differentiation.
The fourth factor is "identi cation and selection" therefore, the following suggestion can be presented in order to improve its dimensions and indicators: related to the identi cation dimension, the technology needed by the company should be identi ed based on the company objectives, technological power of the company should be evaluated, anticipating the technology and technology foresight. Related to the "selection" dimension, possible sources of technology should be identi ed, suggested plans from these sources should be obtained and reviewed and suitable strategies to acquire technology should be identi ed.
The fth factor is "utilization". Therefore, the following suggestion can be presented in order to improve its dimensions and indicators: the infrastructure of project management determination should be promoted, technical, equipment, systemic, and informational infrastructure should be provided, processes should be designed and prepared, plans should be made for supply network, deployment and utilization of the designed systems should be promoted, experimental utilization and bottlenecks should be determined, semi mass production and utilization process should be documented.
The sixth factor is "protection". Therefore, the following suggestion can be presented in order to improve its dimensions and indicators: level of access to technological knowledge should be promoted, technological knowledge should be coded, technological innovations should be o cially registered, IT management system should be utilized, suitable physical equipment should be utilized, supplies and suitable equipment of protecting gathered knowledge and high-security network infrastructures should be utilized.
According to conducted researches in technology management, all six facts factors have a signi cant in uence on technology management and hence, all six factors must be paid attention to. In case such a thing does not happen, reaching success in technology management will fail.

Declarations
Funding : no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript. The structural model when path coe cients are signi cant Caption not included with this version. ANP network in order to determine the factors of technology management Figure 8