"The central aim of IT management is to generate value through the use of technology" (c) Wikipedia.
Strategy* in technology is strongly influenced by the business model of the whole organization - how it seeks competitive advantage, how it creates and captures value. From this point of view, we might consider an organization as close to one the following extremes:
- Sustain - improve what is known in the industry; offer slightly cheaper or better products
- Disrupt - bring to the market significantly simpler, more convenient, cheaper products; focus on customers, who are not covered by the current products or unattractive to the majority of the industry players
If an organization does business in the sustaining way, the technical systems are mainly used to improve operations. In the majority of the cases, it does not prioritize innovations in the underlying tech systems. Companies might focus technology efficiency instead. They monitor market developments and adopt technical solutions when they become mature and less expensive.
If disrupting, the organization usually boosts innovations everywhere, including technology. In this case, technology becomes a strategic tool - aiming to bring something revolutionary to gain significant advantages over the competitors for some time.
The picture might be more complex if tech management strategy is different from the organizational strategy or influential individuals make decisions autonomously.
The most advanced firms may simultaneously engage a high degree of both innovation and efficiency. I will leave this part of the discussion until the very end. For the sake of simplicity, I would consider innovation and efficiency as different topics**.
Note: Some of the points here are inspired by Aneesh Bannerjee
* More on strategy - https://hbr.org/2015/05/what-is-strategy-again
** Check Gartner's Bimodal IT for integrated model - http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/bimodal/