Technological Transfers
Technology transfer is the term used to describe the processes by which technological knowledge moves within or between organisations. International technology transfer refers to the way in which this occurs between countries.
The technological knowledge that is transferred can assume various forms: it can be embodied in goods (including physical goods, plant and animal organisms), services and people, and organisational arrangements, or codified in blueprints, designs, technical documents, and the content of innumerable types of training. Alternatively it can be communicated through flows of tacit knowledge - i.e. knowledge that has not been fully codified, and remains embodied in the skills of people.
All these forms of knowledge may vary in a further important way: at one end of the spectrum, the transfer involved can be concerned with the knowledge for using and operating technology. At the other end, it can be concerned with the knowledge necessary for changing technology and innovating. In between, transferred knowledge may involve the many different kinds of design and engineering knowledge required to replicate and modify technologies.
Moreover, in international technology transfer there is a distinction between horizontal and vertical transfers. Horizontal technology transfer consists ofthe movement of an established technology from one operational environment to another (for instance from one company to another). Vertical technology transfer, in contrast, refers to the transmission of new technologies from their generation during research and development activities in science and technology organisations, for instance, to application in the industrial and agricultural sectors.
1.3.1. Gaining Access to New Technologies
Technology transfer is an important means by which developing countries gain access to technologies that are new to them.
For example, the acquisition of foreign technologies by East and Central European countries, coupled with domestic ‘technological learning’ - efforts to accumulate the capability to change technologies - have been key factors in their rapid technological and economic development, mainly after ’89.However, the ability of developing countries to use technology transfers to develop their domestic capabilities, allowing such countries to reap the social and economic benefits of existing technologies, has been mixed. There are wide variations between countries and between sectors within individual countries.
The disparities between - and within - developing countries in benefiting from technology transfer suggest that the relationship between technology transfer and the accumulation of domestic technological capability is far from straightforward. In other words, more technology transfer does not necessarily lead to more technological and economic development.
Main indicators that enable the assessment of knowledge transfers are: Technology Needs Assessment (TNA), number of people involved in joint R&D projects, inter-academia collaboration; unfortunately, reliable sources of information on these indicators could not be identified.
1.4.