Types of Knowledge and Their Roles in Technology Transfer

At the dawn of a new millennium, the most valuable global commodity is knowledge, particularly new knowledge about technology that may give a culture, a company and/or a laboratory an advantage. This paper begins with examples of tacit technology transfer, including atomic weapons technology, whose development suggests that failure to preserve tacit knowledge could lead to uninvention. This discussion is followed by a taxonomy of knowledge, distinguishing between four types--information, skills, judgement and wisdom. These types are used to refine the distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge, including their role in teams.     

Technology Transfer Emerging Issues “High Impact Trends”

Using an experienced-based methodology it is possible to “forecast” high impact trends in technology transfer. The results presented in this paper are based upon historical data, the author's professional experience, R&D trend information and the aggregation of responses from experts drawn from a wide range of organizational sectors. The technology transfer trend forecasts may be useful to professionals and organizations in technology transfer as they examine future opportunities.     

The Public as a Limit to Technology Transfer: The Influence of Knowledge and Beliefs in Attitudes towards Biotechnology in the UK

Transferring knowledge on new biotechnology applications in the European Union is restricted by limited public support. Explanations for this limited support lead us to examine the influence of knowledge and beliefs in shifting attitudes towards the uncertain consequences of unknown technologies. In addition, this paper looks at the role of perceptions of uncertainty as well as information channels. We denote as “knowledgeable” those attitudes that are held by informed individuals and as “rational irrational” those attitudes purely reflecting political and moral beliefs. The empirical analysis employs data from a UK sample of the 1999 Eurobarometer Survey 52.1. Results suggest that improving knowledge systematically raises individual support for clinical biotech applications such as animal cloning, while attitudes towards market-oriented biotech such as GM food remain systematically unaltered. When controlling for knowledge, significant factors within information channels were gender, perceptions of risk and, in certain applications, religiosity. Findings also support the hypothesis that knowledge driven attitudes arise from those applications where knowledge is shifted by perceived experience and thus perceived information costs are small. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Learning from Technology Transfer in the Greek Context: The Case of Digital Telecommunication Switches

This paper examines the process of technology transfer and associated learning effects experienced by the Greek telecommunication equipment manufacturer INTRAKOM as a result of its involvement in public procurement processes and the technological shift towards software-driven digital switching and transmission systems. Drawing upon the role of Government procurement as an instrument for industrial policy and the learning potential of a technology transfer process, the paper argues that the Public sector's industrial policy considerations, exercised through the procurement practices of the Greek Public Telecommunication Operator (OTE), as well as INTRAKOM's own timely focus in establishing a long-term collaboration agreement with a leading international vendor (ERICSSON) played a catalytic role in the accumulation of domestic capabilities in the manufacturing of selected telecommunication equipment products.     

The Future Location of Research and Technology Transfer

The triple helix model of university-industry-government relations is explicated for the transfer of technology. Drawing upon a broad range of international instances, the stages and phases through which the institutional spheres most relevant to innovation are drawn into a more productive relationship are discussed in comparison to alternative models.     

中国科技法学会二00五年度大会学术讨论综述

2005年11月16日至18日,中国科学技术法学会2005年度大会暨高校科技法研究会学术研讨会在武汉召开。与会专家和代表就“科技发展与科技法制”、“高技术法制”和“知识产权法制”三大专题,聚焦科技与法律前沿问题、热点问题,从理论与实践两个方面进行深入研究和探讨。中国科技法学会会长、国务院国有资产监督管理委员会监事会主席段瑞春教授出席了会议,并就《创新战·品牌·知识产权》向大会做了学术报告,深刻指出企业要切实树立自主创新的主体意识,培育自主知识产权产业,大力推进自主民族品牌战略,从而提高企业核心竞争力。一、科技发展与科…     

Demand Pull Technology Transfer Applied to the Field of Assistive Technology

Technology transfer has generally had little impact on the assistive technology industries serving small, highly fragmented “disability markets.” Persons with disabilities often require specialized, relatively sophisticated technology. Third-party payer reimbursement rates and the low levels of disposable income among disability populations often cap product pricing. Transferring technology to these industry segments therefore poses special challenges. In October 1998, the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology Transfer initiated the “Demand-Pull Project on Wheeled Mobility.” Successful transfers resulting from this project demonstrate that a systematic technology transfer process can be successfully applied to industries serving specialized and underserved niche markets.     

Application of Technology Transfer principles to managerial responsibilities

During the summer of 1985, LCDR Robert Cox completed a course entitled “Technology Transfer” at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. The objectives of the course were to enhance the capability of course participants to take advantage of innovations, to move appropriate research and development results into use, and to gain insight into the Technology Transfer responsibilities of managers. LCDR Cox' paper was chosen from among several contributions as an example of the application of Technology Transfer principles to a manager's job.     

Institutionalized Knowledge Challenges in Pesticide Governance: The End of Knowledge and Beginning of Values in Governing Globalized Environmental Issues

This paper looks at the particular challenges that cross-level interdependence has for the use of knowledge in decision-making for environmental governance. Analytical questions surrounding knowledge generation, use, and flow and the role of institutions in shaping these arise in a multi-level context. By using results from a study on pesticide use in developing countries, some of the particular challenges in relying on scientific knowledge for governance of globalized environmental issues are illustrated. The case involves a situation with significant mismatches between access to and need for knowledge by decision-makers at the different governance levels. The exploration of various strategies to address such mismatches allow discussions not only on the role of knowledge and institutional design but also their limitations and how more inclusive values would serve a system of multilayered governance.     

Paths to Market for Supply Push Technology Transfer

The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology Transfer (T²RERC) advances the methods of technology transfer through research, transforms technologies into products through development, and facilitates the commercialization of new and improved assistive technology devices. This paper reviews the T²RERC's process and the three primary Paths to Market employed by the T²RERC for new products proceeding through its Supply Push program (Lane, 1999) in a case study format.     

Entrepreneurship and University Technology Transfer

This paper argues that it is important to devote greater attention to the study of entrepreneurship in technology transfer in the light of greater government attention, the growth in the phenomenon, the need to identify how wealth can be created from spin-outs, changes in the cultures of universities and differences with technological entrepreneurship in general. The paper summarizes the contributions made by the papers presented in the special issue in terms of their levels of analysis. At the spin-out level, issues are raised concerning identification of typologies of spin-out firms, the evolution of spin-outs and external resources. At the university level, issues concerning policies, internal resources and processes are discussed. An agenda for further research is elaborated which relates to the need to examine further levels of analysis: the academic entrepreneurs themselves and how they recognize opportunities and shape their ideas to meet the market; the nature of internal university environments, processes and resources; and the nature of the scientific discipline which may have implications for the process of creation and development of spin-out ventures.     

The Location of Multinationals in Industrial Districts: Knowledge Transfer in Biomedicals

In order to access and exploit knowledge, MNCs are induced to make FDI in technological districts. It occurs in a two-step process: first joint venture and then acquisition. This perspective is consistent with the evolutionary theory of multinational corporations, which looks at technology transfer as a sound rationale for FDI. The location strategy of multinationals produces a reorganization of district structure and a change in its evolutionary pattern: MNCs become catalysts, bring in new finance, ideas and managerial practices, open the district to external markets and international flows of technology. Biomedical Valley in Italy is a recent high-tech district that fits this picture well. It demonstrates that the rationale for FDI was not wage differentials with parent countries, but rather local knowledge and innovation. Knowledge transfer through subcontractors diffuses and recombines inside the district in two ways: becoming the medium for the dissemination of new codes, procedures and knowledge within the district, and evolving from the role of subcontractors to that of independent producers of final products. The case of biomedical district also induces changes of a number of stereotypes and common beliefs about industrial districts and MNCs.     

农村宅基地使用权流转法律问题探析

农村宅基地使用权作为我国独特的一项用益物权制度,其权利本身是与农村居民的社员身份相挂钩,没立的目的是给予农村居民以居住保障。受我国经济体制转型、户籍制度松动、城乡人员互动频繁等因素影响,原有的农村宅基地使用权制度已难以胜任当前经济、社会发展的需要。尤其是近几年,农村宅基地隐性市场暗地发展的情况下,“农村宅基地使用权能否自由流转？”成为社会热点话题。当前,在城乡统筹发展和新农村建设大背景下,如何完善农村宅基地使用权流转制度？是我国需要慎重考虑的问题。     

Regulation of Technology Transfer to Developing Countries: The Relevance of Institutional Capacity*

This article revisits the debate over appropriate approaches to the regulation of technology transfer to developing countries. It begins by contrasting two stylized approaches, labeled for convenience the “New International Economic Order” model and the “Globalization” model, which have historically struggled for acceptance. It then explores the implications for the choice between these or alternative models of the fact that many developing countries presently lack the institutional capacity required to provide optimal regulation of technology transfer. Existing discussions appear either to assume that developing countries possess sufficient institutional capacity to design and implement sophisticated regulatory regimes, or to take the opposite approach and assume a drastic shortage of institutional capacity. Both approaches ignore the intermediate category of countries that do face constraints upon institutional capacity but are striving to overcome them. The analysis here is intended to demonstrate the general point that a country's present and future institutional capacity ought to be considered highly relevant to the design of central aspects of the regime that it uses to regulate technology transfer. The analysis is also designed to highlight the specific need for attention to the distinctive questions of regulatory design which arise in countries that are in the process of enhancing their institutional capacity in this and other regulatory contexts.     

对基因技术发展的伦理与法律思考

基因技术的迅猛发展,相应地引发了一系列社会问题,对现有的伦理和法律都产生了极大,中击。从生命伦理学和法理学的角度,论述基因技术所引发的基因歧视、基因资源保护、基因制药与基因治疗等若干问题,提出要通过进一步加快我国的生物科技立法,依法合理规制基因技术的发展。     

论跨国公司对华技术转让中的知识产权战略及其对策

在对华技术转让中,跨国公司除了凭借其技术、品牌优势,构筑高技术壁垒,抢先制定行业标准从而控制技术外,它们之间还结成专利联盟,共同维护垄断地位.对此现象,我国必须从立法完善、制定政府战略、改进企业技术引进战略等方面加以规制.     

New Approaches to Technology Transfer from Publicly Funded Research

The conventional wisdom is that American universities transfer technologies more rapidly and more effectively than their European counterparts. While this appears to be true, it is important to note that there are substantial cultural, legal, and regulatory differences between the two regions, and even within Europe. We believe that European universities can enhance their effectiveness in technology transfer if this function is given more visibility and prestige, enhanced public support, and formal procedures are implemented to facilitate benchmarking. In this paper, we examine some of the differences in university technology transfer in Europe and the U.S., and discuss these new approaches, which have recently been fully supported by the European Commission.