The "Gradient Effect" in Federal Laboratory-Industry Technology Transfer Partnerships

Based on data from 229 industry-federal laboratory projects, our research analyzes combinations of technical roles and laboratory characteristics to determine their relation to projects' effectiveness. The results show increased effectiveness when the combination of technical roles follows a "gradient." That is, performance is enhanced when the company plays a different technical role than the laboratory, but a role that is only a step away on the basic-applied-development spectrum. Effectiveness diminishes when both the company and the federal laboratory play the same technical role or when the technical roles are far apart on the basic-applied-development spectrum. The results may have general implications for public policy partnerships, suggesting that although partnership effectiveness requires distinctive roles, partner roles should not be so different as to undermine possibilities for coordination and integration.     

Technology Transfer and Public Policy

This article uses events occurring between 1989 and 1994 at the University of California (UC) as a case study to illustrate the consequences to the university of the collision between two powerful public policy agendas for the university: (a) that it maintain its traditional independence, carrying out its roles of teaching and research untainted by the lures and demands of the marketplace, and (b) that it become more active in economic development activities, including the development and sale of its intellectual property and the establishment of companies to exploit university research. The unsuccessful attempts over these five years by the UC to establish a separate nonprofit foundation to manage its considerable portfolio of intellectual property and to form a for-profit company to fund development and start-up efforts have been plagued with controversy. UC's story offers parallels with the experiences of other universities and illustrates an emerging pattern in the responses of higher education to the new pressures on them to be more economically relevant. The lessons from the UC case are valuable for other universities and for policymakers involved in technology transfer activities.     

System Development in the Federal Government: How Technology Influences Outcomes

Institutional analyses of federal programs to develop large technical systems explain outcomes in terms of a conflict between coalitional politics and program administration. Such analyses gain precision when they take into account how the technical system being developed mediates the conflict of politics and administration. Attention to technology helps explain the different outcomes of three federal programs: the superconducting supercollider, the space shuttle, and intelligent transportation systems.     

Evaluating Government Technology Transfer

The national laboratories are a reservoir of scientific and technological talent that can help America to compete in international markets.… Spurred in the past decade by new legislation and enlightened policies, the national laboratories have greatly expanded efforts to transfer federally-funded inventions and technology to private industry.
Alan Schriesheim (Director, Argonne National Laboratory), "Toward a Golden Age for Technology Transfer," Issues in Science and Technology, Winter, 1990–91, p. 52.
Although Congress adopted several laws in the 1980s to encourage the commercialization of federal laboratory technology and to promote technology transfer from the federal laboratories to the private sector, collaboration between laboratories and industrial firms has been modest at best.
Erich Bloch, Toward A U.S. Technology Strategy, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, February, 1991, p. 22.     

Technology Transfer between Technology Centres and SMEs: Evidence from the Basque Country

Public policies (often at the regional level) favouring pre-competitive research and cooperative research and development have played a decisive role in the development of technology centres in Europe and all over the world. The technology offer model gave priority to the creation of technology transfer organizations and structures, but there is increasing evidence that this model did not attach enough attention to the needs of small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) and in particular, to their capacity to take in knowledge. In this paper, based on qualitative research, we show in detail some of the main issues involved in the relationships between technology centres and SMEs in the Basque Country, a region that has developed intensive policies favouring technology transfer organizations over the years.     

Planned International Technology Transfer:

Since the mid-1980s, Saudi Arabia has required that a percentage of all defense contracts awarded to foreign suppliers be reinvested back in the kingdom into new technology companies. The result has been three “economic offset” programs, encompassing Western defense producers and their home-country governments in the world's largest example of planned international technology transfer. This paper reviews the three main Saudi offsets—attached to the Peace Shield (United States), al-Yamamah (United Kingdom) and Sawari (France) arms deals—for their genesis, operations, achievements, and problems, using interviews with participants and statistical data on companies formed. It then attempts some evaluation of them against their own original explicit and implicit goals, and draws out some lessons and implications.     

Asian Transnational Enterprises and Technology Transfer in Thailand

Like many of its neighbours, Thailand is increasingly interested in upgrading the technological capability of its indigenous firms through the inward investment (foreign direct investment, FDI) of transnational enterprises (TNEs). Its science and technology policies, however, remain fragmented, and they compete with regional distribution priorities. This paper examines the nature of technology transfer between Asian TNEs (Japan and the newly industrializing economies (NIEs), that is, the NIEs of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) and Thai firms based on the responses of some 145 firms from a 2005 survey. It finds only modest levels of technological transfer in production and process technologies. Asian TNEs evaluate factor cost advantages and government incentives favourably. Logistic regressions, however, indicate that government incentives are negatively related to technology process modification between NIE subsidiaries and Thai customers. But, the technical training of Thai workers significantly increases the likelihood of Asian subsidiaries undertaking process technology transfers. Among NIE firms, the ability to import foreign skilled labour further increases the likelihood of such technological activities. Finally, forward linkages among the NIEs are positively associated with firm location in the urban agglomerations of Bangkok and Chon Buri, and, among smaller firms. Our study suggests that prevailing FDI policies have little influence on technology transfer, while technology policies that favour large TNEs work against smaller NIEs that are engaged in modest technology transfer.     

Review Article: Industrial Espionage and Technology Transfer

J. R. HARRIS. Industrial Espionage and Technology Transfer: Britain and France in the Eighteenth Century. Aldershot and Brookfield: Ashgate, 1998. Pp. xvii, 655. $110.95 (US). Reviewed by John Money     

The Politics of International Technology Transfer

Technology transfer is well recognized as a major determinant in the economic development of newly industrializing countries. Increasingly, technology transfer is also recognized as an important component in the economic fortunes of developed countries. The globalization of markets and the premium placed on technological sophistication in industry and services emphasizes the need for governments to consider and engage in technology transfer policy strategies. Our understanding of the dynamics of technology transfer can be enhanced through the study of the experiences of specific states. It is against this backdrop that this paper presents an analysis of technology transfer patterns from the United States and Japan to South Korea from 1962 through 1992. The Korean experience reveals that patterns of technology transfer cannot be explained simply by concentrating on what has been transferred from donor countries, such as the United Slates and Japan. Rather, we need to turn our focus to the host country and to the policy strategies that have been adopted to shape patterns of technology transfer. In short, the question turns from the economics of what, to the policies of how, technology transfer is accomplished.     

美国经济遏制战略与高新技术转让限制

50— 60年代 ,美国经济遏制战略是以禁运战略物资为主 ,从 70年代开始 ,转向以限制高新技术转让为主 ;1 979年《出口管制法》标志着这种转变的完成。在“缓和时代” ,美国经济遏制战略追求的目标是 ,以有限发展东西方贸易换取苏联的政治让步。在“新冷战”时期 ,美国经济遏制战略将打击对象从中国重新转向苏联 ,更重要的是将高新技术转让限制作为迫使苏联“改变国内政治”的重要手段     

Technology Transfer from University to Industry

The present national technology transfer policy suffers from the limited focus on structural barriers, as well as the reluctance of American business to invest in precommercial research and development. A growing consensus from the national debate suggests that policy attention be reoriented, thereby giving a greater emphasis to precommercial technology development (TD) research. This paper examines whether the nation's research-intensive universities, a reservoir of virtually unlimited scientific and technological resources, can possibly go beyond basic research and produce economically viable technology efficiently. To this end, the paper introduces key principles that help organize TD research within the research-intensive university. It also presents the results of a large-scale TD experiment being carried out by a research-intensive university under federal sponsorship. The midterm result strongly indicates that with modest financial support and some internal cultural adjustment, research-intensive universities can break through their ideological barriers and efficiently translate new scientific advances into commercially viable, cutting-edge technology. This is possible because, among other factors, the research-intensive university can build on its awn comparative advantage of strong fundamental research.     

Academic Perceptions of University-Firm Technology Transfer

Why do some academics engage in technology transfer activities while others do not? What facilitates technology transfer? What inhibits it? This paper attempts to answer these questions from the vantage point of academic researchers. After briefly reviewing some pertinent literature, findings from a survey of academic researchers in the nation's top 100 research universities are presented. An assessment is made of academic researchers' technology transfer activities and of attributes that differentiate researchers who engage in technology transfer from their non-participating colleagues. Conclusions are drawn regarding the barriers and facilitators of university technology transfer to industry.     

中苏科学技术合作中的技术转移

20世纪40年代到60年代初,苏联的技术援华推动了现代技术向中国的大规模转 移。50年代初,为更好地协调、管理中苏在科技合作中的各项事宜,成立了中苏科技合作委员会, 推动了双方在研究机构、产品的研究开发和技术科学的学科建设等方面的合作,培养提高了我国科 研院所、设计机构和企业的技术能力。1956年,在苏联专家的建议和帮助下,我国制订了十二年 科技发展远景规划,确定了中国科技的发展方向、目标和基本政策,此举对我国科技的发展产生了 深远的影响。60年代初,随着两国关系的破裂,中苏科技合作中断,因而打乱了我国科技远景规 划的正常实施,造成了中方大量人力物力的浪费和损失。