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Understanding Technology Transfer
Abstract
Technology transfer is a process for applying known technologies to new and novel applications. The term is widely recognized, but the process is not well understood. Technology transfer has significant value for developing industries, including the field of assistive technology. However, this value cannot be realized until the process is fully understood and properly implemented. This paper explains why technology transfer has value for assistive technology, presents a conceptual model of the process that describes the components and their relations, and discusses how intermediaries facilitate the process of transforming a technology into a new and novel product. The technology transfer process involves a series of activities that require cooperation between multiple stakeholder groups over a period of time. Fully applying this process will advance technology transfer from an occasional coincidence to a structured methodology, with intermediaries facilitating stakeholder interaction where necessary.
... In the case of a new technology, Lane (1999) distinguishes between two basic approaches ( Fig. 1). (Lane 1999). ...
... In the case of a new technology, Lane (1999) distinguishes between two basic approaches ( Fig. 1). (Lane 1999). ...
The article presents the results of a marketing survey in the area of customer preferences in the case of different degrees of heat-treated solid wood and birch veneer. Part of the marketing survey was a questionnaire survey, where the respondents, as potential customers, expressed their preferences for individual samples which, at first glance, differed in colour due to the different degrees of heat treatment. The result of the research is a clear preference for the heat-treated samples compared to the reference sample without heat treatment. A more detailed secondary analysis of the data from the questionnaire survey was performed with regard to the gender, age and education of the respondents. Here, too, it is possible to conclude a clear preference for heat-treated samples for these groups of respondents. The article also analyses the possibilities of the marketing strategy with a focus on marketing communication, especially in relation to wood processors and producers.
... The literature lacks consensus or conceptual models about technology transfer. In the absence of a solid foundation in the literature, technology transfer is defined in different manners by different authors, according to their field of science and activity under study (Bozeman, 2000;Lane, 1999). For example, Bennett (2002) in his overview of technology transfer defines the concept as a transaction or a longer-term collaboration in which two parties (the acquirer and the supplier of technology) are directly involved. ...
... However, most definitions have one thing in common. They characterize "technology transfer" as a process in which science or knowledge or capabilities are transferred or moved from one entity (person, group, organization) to other for the purpose of further development and commercialization (Swamidass &Vulasa, 2009;Lane, 1999). The process usually includes the identification of technologies, its protection by patent or copyrights and the development of commercialization strategies, such as marketing and licensing to existing private sector companies, or the creation of new start-up companies based on the technology. ...
The purpose of this paper is to document models of technology transfer from Korea, Japan and Ethiopia. Technology transfer not only fosters productivity growth, but also it is one way to create innovation. It has been documented that technology transfer played a key role to the successful industrialization of the countries that are now referred to as "late-comers". To make a successful technology transfer, effective technology strategies are required. There are various modes of technology transfer among which the common ones are FDI, Turnkey projects, imports of capital goods licensing, reverse engineering, and movement of people. During the initial stage of technology transfer, countries generally follow duplicative imitation where they acquire, assimilate, and improve generally available mature foreign technology through various mechanisms. When firms gained the necessary competencies for manufacturing in the duplicative imitation, they needed to improve their indigenous capabilities by giving emphasis to indigenous R&D efforts to become competitive innovators for creative imitation task. Japan and Korea can be exemplary to learn Western technologies effectively and successfully. Taking lessons from these countries, Ethiopia has done endeavors to learn foreign technology, thereby improve productivity. One successful example of Ethiopia's attempt to learn technology from Japan is the introduction of kaizen.
... Once this strict distinction was made, a broader look was allowed and insight into the ITT case was obtained from general intermediaries and technology transfer bodies (Brem and Moitra 2012;Good et al. 2019a, b;Jagoda et al. 2010;Larsson et al. 2006a, b;Schaeffer et al. 2020) combined with fields such as: firm internationalization and entrepreneurship (Carayannis et al. 2016;Mejri et al. 2018;Sung et al. 2003); international trade; knowledge-intensive business; innovation networks (Rampersad et al. 2010); inter-firm relations and strategic partnerships; global commercialization; and emerging countries-oriented studies (Catalán et al. 2019;De Fuentes et al. 2020). Frameworks that illustrated the roles and the ITT flow served as stepping stones to the conceptual framework suggested in this work (Battistella et al. 2016;Bauer and Flagg 2010;Brem and Moitra 2012;Lane 1999;Sungjoo Lee et al. 2010;Malik 2002;Min et al. 2019). ...
... Concrete examples of types of ITTI found in literature are provided in Table 1. Lane (1999), Klerkx and Leeuwis (2008) Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved. ...
We report which capabilities are essential to a successful demand-driven inter-organizational international technology transfer (ITT) when a business deal involves an emerging country recipient and a developed country source. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study collected opinions from 74 experts from 12 countries on technology transfer and diffusion, innovation systems and networks, and knowledge-intensive business services. In a preliminary attempt to identify which skills are critical, we present the perspective of emerging countries’ stakeholders. The suggested 28 critical capabilities can be used as an input for further empirical analysis. The conceptual framework can be applied to assess an intermediary’s performance for a given ITT project in which the demand arises from an emerging-country stakeholder.
... The focus of this chapter is the use of the concept of adaptation [1], which is a subconcept of technology transfer (TT) [2,3], to explain the uptake of recent digital and automation technologies, here classified as information and communication technologies (ICT), in the built environment. The chapter looks at management functions, specifically focusing on construction site management (CSM) and its process. ...
... The research inherently centred around the parent concept of technology transfer. Hence, relevant theories and concepts were explored, including technology and technology culture [23,24]; TT [2,3,25]; innovation [11,26]; diffusion [27,28]; diffusion of innovations [27,29,30]; adoption theory [29,31]; adoption and user acceptance [29,31]; the function of knowledge in adoption and innovation diffusion [29]; and adoption model based on the contagion concept, social influence, and social learning [32]. Going through the plethora of relevant concepts and theories, none adequately or fully explained the interaction of people and ICT in the unique area of CSM. ...
This book chapter presents the results from a series of studies which explored the use of the technology transfer (TT) subconcept of adaptation to explain the uptake of recent information and communication technologies (ICT) in the construction industry. The specific focus is the management of construction site processes. The studies explored the need for management process enhancement, availability of relevant information and communication technologies, occurrence of such technologies in construction site management (CSM), influencing factors, and challenges to their adoption in construction site management. Results from stages in the phased methodology are used to generate certain hypotheses that are based on analysis of primary and secondary data. Insights from testing the hypotheses and findings from the series of studies are used to model an adaptation-based understanding of the transfer of information and communication technologies in construction site management. While using site management as the specific focus, the study contributes an understanding that is relevant to the construction industry and other project-related environments.
... On reviewing traditional TT models and scenario of technology transfer (Jervis, 1947;Creighton, 1972;Jasinski, 1974;Mock, 1974;Sharif, 1983;Lee, 1994;Mian, 1994;Goldsmith, 1995;Jain, 1997;Narayan, 1997;Jegathesan, 1997;Jolly, 1997;Joseph, 1999;Bozeman, 2000;Jones, 2002;Siegel 2003b,O'Shea, 2004Kahn, 2004;Jelinek 2006;Alaedini, 2007;Cooper, 2008;Geuna, 2008;Lockett, 2008;Nelson, 2010;Mojaveri, 2011;Purushotham, 2013;Kaushik, 2014;Dixit 2018a;Dixit 2018b), following demerits/limitations were observed, which suggested attributes accountable for this such as (i) lack of resources and expertise or lack of collaborative activities with appropriate partner to scale up technologies at industrial level, (ii) inadequate professional education in TT, (iii) lack of vision: for instance, research agenda in organisations with primary focus on fundamental or basic research often gets diluted due to unreasonable expectations of commercialisation and vice versa (Sanhita, 2014), (iv) regulatory issues which hinder commercialisation of technologies, (v) inadequate funding support or inaccessible funding support. Over decades the basic need, buying capacity, awareness and disease burden has undergone a paradigm shift, demanding quality care and affordable solutions (Dixit, 2018a). ...
Inclusive innovation & indigenous development of affordable solutions is the much needed remedy for India's challenge of the low translational rate of healthcare technologies. A study is conducted to understand Indian Technology Transfer landscape and functional analysis of Technology Transfer entities, with qualitative dataset collected from six Indian Technology Transfer entities having different models of Technology Transfer for health technologies. The study provides comprehensive strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) analysis of current Indian Technology Transfer Entities. This has encouraged addressing an inevitable need of a robust translational healthcare model. The study proposes a translational model based on five major translational factors viz. Translational Activities, Human Resource Development, Liaising Activities, Technology Transfer, and Entrepreneurial Support. The model uses a matrix approach to have a focal authority (National Biomedical Technology Authority) with decentralized approach at its five regional facilitation centres (Regional Biomedical Technology Facilitation Centres) and a blue print towards regional development. Further, proposes a platform for sustenance and integrative approach for existing translational capacities.
... The adoption of big data solutions depends largely on the agricultural domain. We can relate this to the concept of technology transfer: the process of applying known technologies to new and novel applications (Lane, 1999). It is possible to have a direct transfer of mature technological advancements from other fields to agriculture (Hayter et al., 2020). ...
CONTEXT
Big data applications in agriculture evolve fast, as more experience, applications, good practices and computational power become available. Actual solutions to real-life problems are scarce. What characterizes the adoption of big data problems to solutions and to what extent is there a match between them?
OBJECTIVE
We aim to assess the conditions of the adoption of big data technologies in agricultural applications, based on the investigation of twelve real-life practical use cases in the precision agriculture and livestock domain.
METHODS
We use a mixed method approach: a case study research around the twelve use cases of Horizon 2020 project CYBELE, varying from precision arable and livestock farming to fishing and food security, and a stakeholder survey (n = 56). Our analysis focuses on four perspectives: (1) the drivers of change that initiated the use cases; (2) the big data characteristics of the problem; (3) the technological maturity level of the solution both at start and end of the project; (4) the stakeholder perspective.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Results show that the use cases’ drivers of change are a combination of data-, technology, research- and commercial interests; most have at least a research drive. The big data characteristics (volume, velocity, variety, veracity) are well-represented, with most emphasis on velocity and variety. Technology readiness levels show that the majority of use cases started at experimental or lab environment stage and aims at a technical maturity of real-world small-scale deployment. Stakeholders’ main concern is cost, user friendliness and to embed the solution within their current work practice.
The adoption of better-matching big data solutions is modest. Big data solutions do not work out-of-the-box when changing application domains. Additional technology development is needed for addressing the idiosyncrasies of agricultural applications.
SIGNIFICANCE
We add a practical, empirical assessment of the current status of big data problems and solutions to the existing body of mainly theoretical knowledge. We considered the CYBELE research project as our laboratory for this. Our strength is that we interviewed the use case representatives in person, and that we included the stakeholders’ perspective in our results.
Large-scale deployments need effective interdisciplinary approaches and long-term project horizons to address issues emerging from big data characteristics, and to avoid compartmentalization of agricultural sciences.
We need both an engineering perspective – to make things work in practice – and a systems thinking perspective – to offer holistic, integrated solutions.
... The WT market needs participative and entrepreneurial governments (8,52,63,77) Governments and agencies should only facilitate, not plan and design WT innovation (27,36,44,46,47,50,53,82) ...
Welfare technologies (WT) such as telecare, service robots, and other digital innovations for public sector service delivery are expected to improve and even radically transform health-and eldercare. However, despite political awareness and financial investments, many studies report promising inventions that fail to become implemented on a larger scale. Current research draws a fragmented and heterogeneous picture of this problem, with divergent implications for practice. This article reviews and discusses the extant literature to identify eight competing concerns central to how WT can become implemented on a large scale. By highlighting and contrasting practical and theoretical positions in this emerging and interdisciplinary research topic , the review contributes to understanding the complexities that managers and policy makers must address to diffuse and sustain WT innovations from small to large scale.
... Some of those novel systems proved to work technically, but they practically never left the lab, let alone entered the practice routines of piano students and teachers [3,4]. Reasons for such an unsuccessful technology transfer are manifold [5]. A critical one is that purely technology-driven products often fail to address certain aspects of users' needs [6]. ...
Numerous technological solutions have been proposed to promote piano learning and teaching, but very few with market success. We are convinced that users’ needs should be the starting point for an effective and transdisciplinary development process of piano-related Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (TaHIL) applications. Thus, we propose to include end users in the initial stage of technology development. We gathered insights from adult piano teachers and students through an online survey and digital interviews. Three potential literature-based solutions have been visualized as scenarios to inspire participants throughout the interviews. Our main findings indicate that potential end users consider posture and body movements, teacher–student communication, and self-practice as crucial aspects of piano education. Further insights resulted in so-called acceptance requirements for each scenario, such as enabling meaningful communication in distance teaching, providing advanced data on a performer’s body movement for increased well-being, and improving students’ motivation for self-practice, all while allowing or even promoting artistic freedom of expression and having an assisting instead of judging character. By putting the users in the center of the fuzzy front end of technology development, we have gone a step further toward concretizing TaHIL applications that may contribute to the routines of piano teaching and learning.
This Guidebook serves as an introduction as well as a refresher for technology transfer managers. It focuses on the question: What can the Technology Transfer manager do when confronted by complex situations and events? The main functional issues addressed here concern the conduct of technology transfer in Technology Utilization programs. These R&D programs whose primary mission is to develop technologies that will be used outside of the Federal sector. Renewable energy, health care, and agricultural advances are technologies of this type. The contents of this Guidebook will be of value to managers in a variety of Federal, State, university and industry technology development and transfer programs. The general area of transferring service innovations is not covered here. The Guidebook is primarily about the development and care of hardware. This Guidebook makes no attempt to judge the value of specific technologies in meeting societal needs. Rather, it addresses the improvement of the technology transfer process itself. It does, however, include reminders that ascertainment of the social value of specific technologies is one of the important yet difficult tasks of R&D and technology transfer programs. [DJE-2005]
Interest in the notion of technology transfer has been gaining momentum during the last two decades. Technology transfer,
however, has different meanings to different people. It may indeed have a variety of definitions to an individual. This paper
is an attempt to define the field in its entirety and to delineate all its facets in a manner that is parsimonious yet discriminating.
In other words it is an attempt to create a classification or taxonomy of technology transfer.
Over 1,400 cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs) were in place across the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory system in May 1995—indicating that a broad sampling of industry endorses the objectives of the National Competitiveness Technology Transfer Act of 1989. The law enables DOE's contractor-operated facilities, such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), to collaborate with companies, industrial consortia, universities, and even state and local governments.
Positive impacts cited by industrial CRADA participants thus far include the improvement of existing products and manufacturing processes, the reduction of investment risks associated with cutting-edge research, and an increased awareness of important technical trends. However, such industrial benefits are often hard to measure; that represents a potential problem for federally funded R&D institutions, where metrics associated with tangible economic impacts are assuming greater prominence.
Future political support for public/private partnerships may depend on steep growth in quantitative measures of economic value, based on the sale of patented products and services. Boosting such sales in a significant way, could, in turn, depend on the consistent application of incentive-based approaches that motivate individuals and organizations to aggressively pursue technology-based commercialization goals.
In Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where Lockheed Martin Energy Systems manages ORNL and other DOE research and production facilities, broadly defined incentives have played a key role in facilitating the sale of licensed products and services. Cumulative sales totaled $102,000,000 in April 1995, with several innovations just beginning to enter the marketplace after years of engineering and product development. The same factors that impact technology deployment in these stand-alone licenses will play a key role in the deployment of inventions arising from CRADAs.
Technology Push Defined What do we mean by “technology push?” Let's first go to Webster for some assistance. Two of the formal definitions that apply to the word push are “to shove” and “to give impetus.” These definitions seem relevant, for what we are dealing with when we talk about technology push is frequently a situation where an organization finds itself with technology that has not been “demanded” by the potential market and therefore, it literally has to push that technology toward its potential markets.
There has been a growing need to significantly improve the availability of effective, practical assistive technology products and techniques from research laboratory into commercial use and clinical application. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Rehabilitation Research and Development (Rehab R and D) Service has responded to this issue by establishing the Technology Transfer Section (TTS). In realizing the inherent problems associated with attracting manufacturers to invest in new rehab products, the TTS has put into action a pro-active, veterans-need, mechanism that can: (1) provide resources to accomplish manufacture of pre-commercial models; (2) conduct national clinical evaluation studies to validate the product's success in meeting an identified need; and (3) define readiness for commercial production. Securing a manufacturer at the onset significantly improves, pending positive evaluation outcome, the product's commercial availability. The transition from research prototype to commercial product has significant barriers that stymie the process. The VA Rehab R and D's TTS 'GATEWAY' process offers a unique approach to breaking through the barriers facilitating new rehab technology being available to veterans - and the entire population - with disabilities.
The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology Evaluation and Transfer (RERC-TET) operated from 1993 to 1998. Its objectives were to identify prototype assistive devices, evaluate their potential value for consumers, and work to commercialize those with apparent value. The RERC-TET met its objectives by evaluating hundreds of prototype assistive devices, and transferring an average of five per year to manufacturers through licenses. The RERC-TET implemented the principal of Participatory Action Research, by integrating people with disabilities in teams of technical and marketing personnel. This paper reviews the contributions of consumers to the evaluation and transfer programs conducted.
The RERC-TET is a collaborative program to evaluate and commercialize prototypes of new assistive devices. The evaluation process involves consumers conducting user trials, business people performing market analysis, and university researchers conducting technical testing. All three groups work together to move promising new devices to the marketplace. The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research sponsors this collaborative program with two goals: to help useful prototype devices reach the marketplace thereby improving the quality of assistive devices, and to work towards establishing a community-based program for device commercialization, run by and for persons with disabilities. The RERC-TET is designed to add value to prototype devices, by demonstrating their utility and market viability. This paper reviews seminal prior literature, describes the RERC-TET's program, presents points of access for prospective users, and explains how the program's capabilities add value to new assistive devices.
Technology evaluation and technology transfer are both means to increase the quality and quantity of assistive devices in the marketplace. Despite a respectable level of activity in both arenas, there is little documentation on the terms used, the structure of the process employed and the roles of the participants. This paper draws from the existing literature and applies the experience of one program to provide an overview to technology evaluation and transfer.
Three primary factors account for why an unprecedented number of American inventors are focusing their talents on developing assistive technology: (1) the technology market is providing them with an ever-growing collection of new and affordable development tools; (2) there is new legislation concerning (and government money to support) both the social and technological rights of disabled people; and (3) the US population is aging, and therefore increasing the demand for assistive devices. The ultimate goal of these research and development (R and D) efforts is technology transfer, i.e. moving the devices out of the research laboratory and into the hands of consumers. Yet devices invented in Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs), universities, or even small private research laboratories, rarely make it to the commercial market. This paper suggests that a basic incompatibility exists between the talents of those who invent and the skills needed to achieve technology transfer, and suggests ways of dealing with this dilemma.