The application of technology to housing design, construction, and operation offers opportunities for improving affordability, energy efficiency, comfort, safety, and convenience for consumers. New technologies and production processes could help resolve serious problems facing housing producers, including labor shortages, interruptions due to inclement weather, quality control, and theft and vandalism losses. However, it is generally believed that realizing these benefits on a broad scale is considerably hindered by characteristics of the housing industry that inhibit the development and diffusion of innovations. The Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) supports activities to address issues that are perceived by the industry to be the primary causes of the problems, i.e., barriers to innovation, lack of accessible information, and insufficient research and development (R&D) (NAHBRC, 1998). PATH was initiated in 1998 when Congress appropriated funds for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to begin implementing the concept, which was created by the National Science and Technology Council Construction and Building Subcommittee (NSTC C&B). At the request of HUD, the National Research Council (NRC) assembled a panel of experts as the Committee for Review and Assessment of the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing under the NRC Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment. The committee was asked to assess how well PATH is achieving its many program objectives to expand the development and utilization of new technologies in the U.S. housing industry. The committee has approached evaluation of the program as an exercise that also provides direction for PATH's future improvement.

Technology roadmapping is a significant method to help companies gain orientation concerning future challenges. This work contains a description of technology roadmapping in four major parts, providing expert knowledge on framing/embedding of technology roadmapping, processes of technology roadmapping, implementing technology roadmapping and linking technology roadmapping to other instruments of strategic planning. The book provides a comprehensive survey of technology roadmapping since it contains papers by leading European, American and Asian experts, provides orientation regarding different methods of technology roadmapping and their interconnections, supplies readers with a compilation of the most important submethods, and embeds and links technology roadmapping in the framework of management research. This book aims at becoming the leading compendium on technology roadmapping.