2.7: Technology transfer
project management
Management of a technology transfer project includes all the
phases of design, planning and implementation of the transfer [25]. Unlike the
classical phases of project management through which a technology transfer
project also proceeds, managing a technology transfer project involves training
and human relational learning with all the complexities it can entail.
Technology transfer project management is all about overcoming conceptual
resistance, technical resistance, economic and financial resistance, as well as
cultural resistance which characterizes the behavior of all companies and
businesses towards the coming of a new technology [25].
The management strategy for a technology transfer project
depends on the following variables [25]
· Nature of the origin and destination systems; the
socio-technical nature of the systems involved in the transfer.
· If it is a `technology-pull' problem involving
socio-technical adaptation or a `technology-push' problem, involving building
bridges across boundary lines
· Type of technology involved; hard or soft: the
hard/soft metaphor applies to the technology transfer as well as to the type of
resistance offered/boundaries encountered; the more scientific or conceptually
intricate a technology is, the more changes integrating it would require at the
destination end, the greater the degree of innovation it would require and
hence the softer the technology would be while the more extensive the machinery
and equipment associated with the technology are and the more they operate on a
stand-alone basis, the more automated the technology is, the freer it is of the
context and social sphere into which it is being placed, the harder the
technology would be. Hard technologies or the hard components of a technology
are fairly easy to transfer across hard boundaries (poorly developed
destination systems in technology) while soft technologies or the soft
components of a technology like information systems, technical know-how of a
technology require careful integration
· Technical limits beyond which technology is no longer
efficient
· Relative hardness of the boundaries/resistance:
resistance to change is exhibited in the form of boundaries/barriers, keeping
out change from the outside system.
· Relative hardness of the technology
· What would be transferred in the technology transfer
i)Transferring hard technologies across hard boundaries are
conditions surrounding some turnkey based projects and have a greater chance of
succeeding e.g. dam in Chine built by North American companies; (ii)
transferring hard technologies across soft boundaries e.g. Canadian nuclear
plant in Italy; (iii) transferring soft technologies across soft boundaries
where the strategic issue for transfer project management is in terms of
`technology-pull' (the receiver's objective) and finally, (iv) transferring
soft technologies across hard boundaries which is the most complex from the
technology transfer management perspective and where the central problem is the
relative impermeability of the boundaries which sets up resistance to
socio-technical change and makes innovation difficult.
Transfers concerning soft technologies or soft components of a
technology need careful integration and pre-planned strategies, since they
require substantial adjustments on a company's social system (e.g. its
organization) while the transfers across hard boundaries would need intervening
institutions as bridges between the source and destination as they would have
to cross hard boundaries and thus overcome strong resistance to transfer.
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