Technology,change, and the management accountant

Before technology transfer can take place there must be a climate for change. An understanding of the change process is necessary if the transfer of new accounting technology is to be successful and if the design and implementation of it can be carried out in such a way as to create a fit within a particular organizational culture and environment. This article provides some insight into organizational change, change in management-accounting technologies, and the contributions of accountants to innovation in technology organizations.     

A legal perspective on university technology transfer

In the thirty-five years after passage of the Bayh–Dole Act of 1980, a robust literature has documented the emergence of university technology transfer as a critical mechanism for the dissemination and commercialization of new technology stemming from federally-funded research. Missing from these investigations, however, is what this paper terms the legal perspective, an understanding of how the law and its attendant mechanisms impact university technology transfer. Specifically, the paper reviews the extant legal scholarship and provides examples of how case law, legal structures, and the unique nature of intellectual property law affects technology transfer, as well as higher education policy and management. Throughout, we propose critical questions for future investigation, which serve to form a cross-disciplinary research agenda that can contribute fresh insights to scholarly and policy discussions related to the role of universities in economic and social development.     

Technology transfer: Toward mapping the field,a review,and research directions

With the renewed interest in technology transfer in academia, industry, and government, there is a need to focus the field. This article identifies the key elements of the domain of technology transfer, surveys the key terms used in the literature and offers some research directions. Technology transfer is viewed as a multidisciplinary phenomenon, and as a field of knowledge, hence this call for a sustained effort to build a TT theory and to generate research streams across disciplinary boundaries.     

Federal technology transfer: Teaching it

This paper recommends development of teaching materials and cases on technology transfer for undergraduate and graduate courses in business and engineering. Its focus is the process of transferring technology from the federal laboratories to business organizations.     

Doing technology transfer in federal laboratories (Part 1)

According to data from the Congressional General Accounting Office and the Association of University Technology Managers, the federal laboratories seriously lag some universities in rates of technology transfer. This paper, based on interviews with technology-transfer professionals in federal laboratories and universities, discusses the phenomenon of technology transfer, highlighting subjects such as technology push and market pull, cooperative R&D, technology licensing, start-up companies, information-dissemination and technology-search programs, technology transfer and local development, models of technology-transfer programs, limits to federal technology transfer, and measurement of technology transfer. It concludes that the explanation for the difference in technology-transfer rates between federal laboratories and universities is due primarily to the way technology-transfer opportunities are marketed in the two sectors.     

Improving federal technology commercialization: Some recommendations from a field study

This study identified three distinct roles of the federal technology-transfer process in the Huntsville, Alabama region: sponsors, developers, and adopters. The basic structure of transfer barriers and measures during the prospecting and developing of the federal technology-transfer process is also discussed. Sponsors attributed transfer problems to adopters' lack of awareness, while developers cited long development and payback times. Adopters admitted their lack of transfer expertise and their resistance to technologies with long paybacks. None of the role-players were measuring technology transfer very well. While sponsors agreed with adopters that long-term outcome measures were important, sponsors relied on measures of input effort and intermediate results. Developers with the most transfer experience reported the lowest use of measures. Recommendations are made for each role to help improve federal technology transfer.     

Spatial mobility of knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity: analysis and measurement of the impact within the geoeconomic space

This paper analyses the spatial mobility of knowledge and technology transfer and measures the economic impact on the geo-economic space. The data of laboratories operating in different research and technological fields are used. The results show that, when the distance from the source of knowledge (research institute) to users increases, the impact of knowledge and technology transfer decreases with damped pulsations. The magnitude of knowledge and technology transfer shows a high intensity within the industrial district because small businesses are able to acquire externally scientific knowledge, without conducting in-house research, but by interactions with public scientific bodies and adopting both collective rules that act as collective knowledge devices, making collective learning possible, and skilled labor.

Transition from paper to paperless: DOD'S CALS system

When technology is transferred from one context to another, it is an established principle that innovation must take place. Even though a technology is well situated in one context, it must be adoptively redesigned for another. The sharper the difference in contexts, the greater the adaptation. This paper describes a program to transfer technology among a very diverse group of organizations: contractors to the US Department of Defense (DOD). Specifically, it describes how the technology of electronic communication, including electronic- data interchange (EDI), is being pursued by both the DOD and its supporters.     

Barriers and Bridges for Successful Environmental Technology Transfer

Governmental policy, social factors, individual behavior, and technology play critical roles in improving the environment. The Department of Defense is not immune to these factors as its actions have, and will continue, to impact its operational environments.This research analyzes the technological aspect of improving environmental conditions. Of particular interest, are the barriers encountered when laboratories transfer environmental technology to an end-user, and the bridges used to mitigate these barriers. A case study methodology is utilized analyzing five environmental technology transfers within the U.S. Air Force.Several key barriers and bridges are specific to the transfer of environmental technologies. They include environmental regulatory agency oversight, difficulty in clearly defining the end-user, and the need to demonstrate technologies to potential end-users. However, many barriers and bridges encountered in the environmental technology transfer, are also encountered in the transfer of other technologies. Based on these findings, recommendations are provided for improving the environmental technology transfer process.     

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.     

Measuring technology transfer performance: A case study

The debate continues on how to measure results of technology transfer. New and revised models are being conceived and tested in various economic settings. This paper addresses the performance measures that are being derived from the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce technology transfer program.     

Omissions relevant to the contextual domains of technology transfer models

Ideographic representations (schematic drawings) are useful for analyzing and communicating complex ideas. They constitute simplified versions of the way multiple and diverse elements, concepts, and variables interact according to each author's conceptions, knowledge, and experience of planned change and change phenomena. Such representations depict a sense of order under a particular model configuration or system notion, involving contexts where action takes place and events occur. This paper is based on the commonality analysis of 46 models related to technology transfer. Within the framework of previously published research, complementary findings are presented here. The discussion is focused on the characteristics of the models' contexts, appealing to some technology transfer aspects widely omitted or neglected. It is suggested that the understanding of intervention contextual domains is important to formulate and implement better technology transfer models.     

Guns to butter: Technology-transfer strategies in the national laboratories

The military threat to national security has substantially diminished, and the need for a stronger focus on economic competitiveness for the US is becoming more pronounced every day. We must find ways to accomplish more-effective technology transfer. This paper outlines four technology-transfer strategies used by the Department of Energy's national laboratories: the passive strategy, the active strategy, the entrepreneurial strategy, and the national-competitiveness strategy. It compares these strategies in terms of organizational structure, performance measures, and staffing, and it discusses the implications of these comparisons of technology transfer. The findings contained in this paper are based on the author's interviews with technology-transfer staff and program directors at the national laboratories and on analysis of the institutional plans.     

Technology transfer negotiations: Determinants of MNEs' bargaining power

Technology is, perhaps, the most desirable attribute of multinational enterprises (MNEs) to the less developed countries (LDCs) and constitutes their primary source of bargaining power. Similarly, the attractiveness of a market to the MNEs constitutes LDCs' principal source of negotiating strength in dealing with MNEs on such matters as the conditions for investment and technology transfer. What is unclear is how these independent variables are most successfully utilized. The aim of this paper is to identify and examine the bargaining power variables and their level of influence in technology transfer negotiations. The result shows that though technology is always a source of negotiating strength to MNEs, locational attractiveness may not always be a significant source of bargaining power to LDCs in all negotiations with multinational enterprises.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Technology transfer and value creation: Extending the theory beyond information exchange

Most interfirm models of technology transfer involve the exchange of information. As technology gains increasing importance in competitive strategy, however, the information-exchange perspective becomes increasingly limited. This paper conceptually extends the interfirm technology-transfer process to include aspects of commercialization and value creation. Like other areas of organizational science, much of the problem associated with technology transfer involves implementation. The model developed in this study, in its simplest form, links the technology-transfer process to the well-developed process models of new-product and new-venture development.