Overcoming barriers to technology transfer between small business assistance agencies and their clients: Third world style

This paper presents the results of an empirical examination of the methods small business assistance agencies in the Dominican Republic use to overcome technology transfer barriers. The availability and the methods agencies use to access the world's business knowledge are examined, as well as how the agencies disseminate the information to clients. The discussion identifies barriers that inhibit the flow of client information between (1) the knowledge pool and the agencies and (2) the agencies and the client. The strategies that agencies use to overcome barriers are characterized as push or pull, and informal or formal. Pull strategies begin with marketplace need and work toward the technology to solve the problem. Push strategies begin with specific business information and work toward its acceptance and use in the marketplace by clients. Personal interviews were conducted in Spanish with heads of the 13 assistance agencies in the country. Survey participants were asked about the processes, procedures, and techniques they used to gain and transfer business skills. The study identifies specific activities in which the agencies engage in order to effectively overcome barriers to the transfer of business knowledge.     

Law versus technology: Blockchain,GDPR, and tough tradeoffs

Inconsistency between the way in which the law is structured, and the way in which technologies actually operate is always an interesting and useful topic to explore. When a law conflicts with a business model, the solution will often be changing the business model. However, when the law comes into conflict with the architecture of hardware and software, it is less clear how the problem will be managed.In this paper, we analyze the contradiction of blockchain technology and the requirements of GDPR. The three contradictions we examine are (i) right to be forgotten versus irreversibility/immutability of records, (ii) data protection by design versus tamper-proofness and transparency of blockchain, and (iii) data controller versus decentralized nodes. We highlight that the conflicts can be handled through focusing on commonalities of GDPR and the blockchain, developing new approaches and interpretations, and tailoring the blockchain technology according to the needs of data protection law.     

Innovative economic development: The Georgia Environmental Technology Consortium

Case studies demonstrate how the Georgia Environmental Technology Consortium (GETC), a partnership between the research universities, the business community, and the state government, fosters economic development in Georgia. The technology managers, scientists, and engineers in the GETC provide environmentally sound, innovative solutions to complex industry problems improving economic development in the state. Gifts that people took for granted for centuries are clean air, water, and soil. These are now threatened. There are also dangers in the workplace. Employees are faced with workplaces which can be hazardous. In this paper we see the GETC dedicating substantial resources to natural and workplace environmental health issues. The cases cited demonstrate the technology transfer of university research into industry applications. The resulting environmentally responsible products and processes improve the general public health and the competitive position of Georgia firms, insuring more jobs and a better quality of life.     

Industry/university licenses: A negotiating strategy

A lament often heard from U.S. industry licensing executives about their university (“university” refers to universities, not-for-profit research institutions, and hospitals) counterparts is, “they (university technology licensing officers) just don't understand business.” Conversely, university licensing managers criticize their industry counterparts for not understanding (or even trying to understand) the mission and constraints of university technology transfer. University licensing managers also accuse their industry counterparts as being predatory and seeking to take unfair advantage of university technology licensing opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to enhance the dialog between university licensors and industry licensees. This paper reviews the basis of university licensing, decries the focus on financial considerations, suggests references for further study of valuation and pricing issues, delineates companies' and universities' needs in licensing embryonic university technologies, and proposes a negotiation strategy.     

Environmental remediation technology implementation decision patterns

Each year, environmental technology implementation involves many millions of dollars in the United States alone. The economics of making decisions to continue research, to make changes to processes, or to introduce new products is a critical element in the success of organizations. In previous work by Paladino and Longsworth (1996), the importance of economic factors has been postulated to increase according to a set pattern throughout the implementation process. The authors seek to validate this theory and develop a better understanding of decision patterns related to technology implementations in the environmental remediation business area.     

Taking crime out of crime business

It is one thing to assert that conventional market analysis is critically useful in understanding criminal enterprise. It is more challenging to suggest that corrupt and compromised legal regulation interacts with other critical market variables to maximise market advantage for crime business in a similar manner to legitimate regulatory forces in their protection and enhancement of legitimate business enterprise. The central argument of this paper is that crime business mirrors other business forms when considered in terms of critical market variables, and that in particular regulatory forces when inverted from their original purposes can influence market conditions in the same ways desired from the legitimate regulatory form. The main research direction deriving from the analysis of regulatory influences over specific criminal enterprises is how do certain critical market forces essentially facilitate criminal enterprise as a market phenomenon. This paper suggests how through comparatively analysing nominated critical market forces in the context of lucrative and recurrent criminal enterprises, common business decision-making may be predicted and thereby controlled beyond a law enforcement paradigm. In fact, the paper argues that when perverted law enforcement regulation operates as an inter-connecting market characteristic then it can have a similar influence over illegitimate enterprise that law enforcement may provide legitimate business.By establishing a richer and more enterprise-oriented understanding of crucial market variables, it becomes possible to refine control strategies at critical entry and exit points in the operation of clandestine crime businesses. The paper will challenge a comparative theorising of what makes crime business a good business, and how normative distinctions between illegitimate markets are made less convincing when positioned against an analysis of the interaction of critical market variables.     

Technology transfer practice in japanese corporations: Meeting new service requirements

Japanese corporations are undergoing radical transition: they have begun to reassess the role, organization, and management of their internal R&D and technology commercialization activities in response to changing market, business, and technical conditions. From large consumer electronics firms such as Matsushita and Sony to the semiconductor and computing conglomerates such as Fujitsu and NEC, these organizations are under considerable pressure to both invent and innovate more rapidly and cheaply than ever before. As technologies become more complex and integrated—such as the convergence of electronics, computing, video, and broadcast television—it is no longer practical to assume that all of a firm's R&D needs can be met internally. This paper looks first at how major Japanese corporations have embraced technology transfer mechanisms such as licensing, joint collaboration, and the outsourcing of R&D to manage these changes dynamically and effectively. Secondly, this paper looks at why Japanese firms' record of managing collaboration and licensing, particularly on an international basis, has been disappointing because of a number of problems and barriers. These difficulties, which are compounded by the further externalization of research and technology and by increased licensing activity, have given rise to a need for new technology transfer services which, until recently, have not been available either within the organization or through local consulting firms in Japan. This paper concludes by outlining strategic and operational guidelines for managing licensing and collaboration arrangements between U.S. and Japanese firms which are also applicable in the general case. These insights are based on the experiences of managing licensing and collaboration programs between Japanese and U.S. organizations from the dual perspectives of two licensing firms—Innovation Partners, kk. in Japan and Competitive Technologies, Inc. of the United States.     

A pilot survey of courses in technology transfer offered at selected colleges and universities in the United States

This survey was developed to determine the nature of the programs and courses intechnology transfer now in existence in the United States. A pilot study approach was used, without operationalizing a definition, to avoid excluding possible technology transfer activities. Results indicate twenty colleges and universities offering courses in a wide range of academic settings including engineering, business, psychology, sociology, political science, environmental studies and agriculture. With the majority of respondents, technology transfer is studied as a combination of the history of science and technology, management, information science, and communication. In this sense, it appears to be an interdisciplinary study with a strong direction toward communication protocols, and management skills as primary outcomes.     

Corporate Security: Using Knowledge Construction to Define a Practising Body of Knowledge

Security is a multidimensional concept, with many meanings, practising domains, and heterogeneous occupations. Therefore, it is difficult to define security as a singular concept, although understanding may be achieved by its applied context in presenting a domicile body of knowledge. There have been studies that have presented a number of corporate security bodies of knowledge; however, there is still restricted consensus. From these past body of knowledge studies, and supported by multidimensional scaling knowledge mapping, a body of knowledge framework is put forward, integrating core and allied knowledge categories. The core knowledge categories include practise areas such as risk management, business continuity, personnel and physical security, and security technology. Nevertheless, corporate security also has interrelationships with criminology, facility management, safety, and law. Such a framework provides clear boundaries for the practising domain of corporate security, better reflects the security experts’ view of their practising domain, allows directed tertiary pedagogy, and presents what could be considered the scholarly area of Security Science.     

Transferring gas-turbine technologies to the former Soviet Union: Opportunities and problems

The new nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States are notoriously energy- inefficient. States like Russia and Ukraine seek technologies from the West that will improve efficient combustion of fossil fuels. Recently, scientists in the United States and the former Soviet Union have explored the idea of transferring technologies to Russia and Ukraine to develop and mass-produce aeroderivative gas turbines, which promise to quickly replace power lost front the shut- down of unsafe nuclear reactors in Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet republics. Production of these turbines could promote defense conversion in Russia and Ukraine and could provide opportunities for American companies to trade and invest in emerging markets. Despite these clear advantages, formidable obstacles impede the immediate development, production, and commercialization of this technology by American firms in the former Soviet republics. Constraints include competition from European firms that are developing and marketing similar technologies, unfavorable business and economic conditions in the former Soviet republics, and official Russian- US differences concerning the closure of nuclear power plants and development of oil and gas reserves.     

SBIR first decade-results,benefits, problems from a Michigan perspective

This paper reports on the economic contributions and impact of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program in Michigan during the first decade. The Michigan SBIR experience is examined to learn how researchers and small businesses use the SBIR Program, whether to start or strengthen businesses, how they view SBIR after a decade, and how the program has served Michigan businesses that have successfully carried out Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III SBIR projects. From the beginning of the SBIR Program, MERRA has coordinated annual SBIR conferences for Michigan companies. The MERRA staff has helped small businesses prepare suitable R&D projects and write effective SBIR proposals. Numerous SBIR awards have resulted from MERRA supportive efforts, and the MERRA small business outreach activity has kept MERRA in touch with successful firms to assist them in getting the best results from their SBIR projects and to assess progress. For this study, in-depth evaluations were made of various Michigan firms that won SBIR awards, including both mature small businesses and start-up companies to learn in what ways their SBIR experiences are parallel and in what ways they diverge. The study covers those that have used SBIR funds to diversify and add new areas of business to existing core areas. Other companies examined were created by researchers associated with universities, industry, or research organizations who utilized SBIR awards to assist in starting new businesses. Also considered were Michigan companies at different levels of development that have employed SBIR awards as seed money to perfect innovative new products for marketing.     

‘No banquet can do without liquor’: alcohol counterfeiting in the People’s Republic of China

The illegal trade in alcohol has been an empirical manifestation of organised crime with a very long history; yet, the nature of the illegal trade in alcohol has received relatively limited academic attention in recent years despite the fact that it has been linked with significant tax evasion as well as serious health problems and even deaths. The current article focuses on a specific type associated with the illegal trade in alcohol, the counterfeiting of alcohol in China. The article pays particular attention to the counterfeiting of baijiu - Chinese liquor - in mainland China. The aim of the article is to offer an account of the social organisation of the alcohol counterfeiting business in China by illustrating the counterfeiting process, the actors in the business as well as its possible embeddedness in legal practices, trades and industries. The alcohol counterfeiting business is highly reflective to the market demand and consumer needs. Alcohol counterfeiting in China is characterised primarily by independent actors many of whom are subcontracted to provide commodities and services about the counterfeiting process. The business relies on personal networks – family and extended family members, friends and acquaintances. Relationships between actors in the business are very often based on a customer-supplier relationship or a ‘business-to-business market’. The alcohol counterfeiting business in China highlights the symbiotic relationship between illegal and legal businesses.     

Foreign investment innovation: a review of selected policies

Whereas foreign investment innovation (FII) has become increasingly common, after decades of debate it is still unclear whether it is desirable for the home country or for the company’s host country. This paper reviews articles from three complementary economic and business traditions which investigate this phenomenon and propose policies based on facts: the economics of technological change tradition, the international business (IB) tradition, and the line of research on international technology transfers. Articles in line with these strands of theory complement each other because they approach different aspects of complex events while explaining FII and its effects on host and home countries. Host countries obtain maximum benefits from FII when affiliates import foreign technology, purchase their inputs in the host country and enjoy product and technological autonomy vis-à-vis the parent. Different types of MNEs, affiliates and foreign R&D units have different potentials for transferring technology to host countries and provide different scope for policies. The authors recommend that governments encourage direct vertical linkages between MNEs and domestic suppliers who could reap the benefits from foreign knowledge. However, some important success factors remain exogenous to governments. As for indigenous MNEs, it is a matter of controversy whether governments should always stimulate them to conduct research in foreign locations or, alternatively, incentive them to stay at home. The need for additional evidence is still considerable in many respects.

National laboratories as business incubators and region builders

Public sector labs do not appear to have generated as much regional business spinoff as universities and research-intensive businesses. This difference may be explained in large part by the disparate capabilities for and attitudes toward new-firm incubation on the part of parent institutions and other anchor tenants. We believe that federal lab personnel systems, research cultures, geographical isolation, management preferences, and complex public interest issues are responsible. These phenomena are explored in an intensive case study of startups associated with Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. Interviews conducted with 33 firms confirm many barriers to incubation, but also reveal some advantages offered by public labs and suggest that changes in attitude, culture, and policy can make a difference. We explore the difficult issues of property rights assignment, public employee conflict-of-interest rules, and the use of public sector equity in spinoffs, and we conclude that startup efforts have been underfunded. Lab partnerships with large corporations in comparison are expensive, hoard labor, and are less effective at transferring technology. Recommendations for improvement of the incubation process include entrepreneurial leave and training, streamlining of conflict-of-interest, patent, and licensing procedures, and lab based efforts to connect would be entrepreneurs with sources of business assistance, space and capital.     

An alternative industrial extension model: The experience of the food manufacturing industry

The ability to reach small manufacturers with productivity enhancing technology requires implementation of alternative industrial extension strategies. We describe one such strategy being pursued in the food manufacturing industry. Given the large numbers of small manufacturers and of potential technology suppliers, the challenge is to create an effective approach that takes advantage of the market aggregation capacity of food industry trade associations. Through a food manufacturing coalition, this extension effort will identify common industry needs for technology; assess and adapt existing technology;stimulate vendors to capitalize on the technology; and rely upon market forces to encourage innovative problem solving.     

Technology transfer: A shortcut in danger of short circuit

At cocktail parties, in board rooms, at workstations, in classrooms, and in government offices, “technology transfer” is bandied about as if it were some natural phenomenon, a technological tsunami overwhelming everything in its path. Technology transfer, it is sometimes suggested, is an El Niño in business, government, industry, and even education decision-making, and for some it has meant disruption, dislocation, and danger. For others, technology transfer has been the vanguard of progress and an inexhaustible fountain of productivity, empowerment, and convenience. For all, “technology transfer” today is too often a personal shortcut in our communication that points to unintended meanings or implications. Just whatis “technology transfer,” anyway? To move beyond knee-jerk advocacy or damnation of technology transfer on the questionable basis of faith, and to lay out a new dimension to the definition, understanding, and acceptance of technology transfer that is clear and understandable to any layman, is the purpose of this paper. It is based on a selective yet careful web search, since the Internet World Wide Web is a principal source for information in the growing debate about public policy issues.     

Can We Protect How We Do What We Do? A Consideration of Business Method Patents in Australia and Europe

In the long history of monopolies, business method patents area novel and recent edition. In the Digital Age, where time ismoney and speed is everything, innovative methods for undertakingbusiness are as important to a business as the products or servicesit provides to its clients. In recent years several reviews,conducted in both Australia and internationally,⁴ have questionedthe appropriateness of patenting business methods. This paperreviews the availability of business method patents in Australiain light of the 2006 decision of the Full Court of the FederalCourt in Grant v Commissioner of Patents,⁵ which confirmed theneed in Australia for a ‘useful product’ to issuefrom the working of a method (business or otherwise) in orderfor the method to be patentable. This paper will review argumentsboth criticising and defending business method patents and considerwhether business methods warrant special treatment.     

Turning science into business in developing countries: the case of vaccine production in Vietnam

Turning scientific discoveries into business opportunities is a difficult process, particularly in high-tech related area such as bioscience and biotechnology. In developing countries, where research conditions are much less favorable than in the industrialized world, there are many additional constraints in terms of finance, investment, and human resources. However, the production of vaccines on the basis of research and technology transfer in Vietnam shows that this is possible provided the right policy and right people are available. Relying on transfer of technology from overseas, plus a combination of domestic efforts and international cooperation on R&D, Vietnamese research institutes have turned their research into business operations and turned some scientists into a businessmen and women. This in turn, has contributed to the eradication of certain diseases and Vietnam’s self-reliance of key vaccines.      

Technology transfer to a major manufacturing industry: Case study of a state's approach

The paper presents the state of Alabama's approach to the transfer of technology to the apparel-manufacturing industry. The technology-transfer program has been under way for three years. This paper summarizes the highlights of the program, the approach to transferring technology, and the lessons learned.     

Digital evidence: Unaddressed threats to fairness and the presumption of innocence

Contemporary criminal investigation assisted by computing technology imposes challenges to the right to a fair trial and the scientific validity of digital evidence. This paper identifies three categories of unaddressed threats to fairness and the presumption of innocence during investigations – (i) the inappropriate and inconsistent use of technology; (ii) old procedural guarantees, which are not adapted to contemporary digital evidence processes and services; (iii) and the lack of reliability testing in digital forensics practice. Further, the solutions that have been suggested to overcome these issues are critically reviewed to identify their shortcomings. Ultimately, the paper argues for the need of legislative intervention and enforcement of standards and validation procedures for digital evidence in order to protect innocent suspects and all parties in the criminal proceedings from the negative consequences of technology-assisted investigations.