Prof Elma van der Lingen received the Best Paper Award recently at the International Association for Management of Technology (IAMOT) Conference which was held in Orlando, USA. The paper with title "Choice of technology acquisition modes within a business cycle" formed part of a masters study by Alexandra Paton.

The purpose of this study was to link the value chain and business cycle to the choice of technology acquisition mode. Although this area has been studied extensively within the electronics industry there is a gap in the body of knowledge within the mining industry. This study suggests a conceptual framework within which the selection of technology acquisition modes changes during the business cycle and impacts on specific areas of the company’s value chain. Results show that technology acquisition modes e.g. in-house development, technology purchasing and collaborative development change over a business cycle, and that technologies are developed mostly for key area (processes) and support area (process systems), followed then by management innovation