Australia's strengths and weaknesses in technology transfer and R&D exploitation : GEM survey "experts" views compared with public policy and other published data

There has been increasing public debate in Australia in recent years about research culture in universities and other publicly funded research agencies such as CSIRO and its impact on Australia's performance in generating economic, social and environmental benefits to the Australian community from the large amount of public funding for R&D. This is the supply side issue. On the demand side there is equally concern about the technology absorptive capacity of Australian. business as illustrated by the low proportion of gross business research expenditure (GERD) spent by business (BERD). Against this background, this paper has explored the views of abut 100 "experts" interviewed in the Australian Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) studies in the years 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 on the issues, strengths and weaknesses of Australia's technology transfer performance as it applies to new technology small firms. The paper has also explored evidence for any longitudinal change over this period.

On the relationship between technology transfer and economic growth in Asian economies

In this paper, FDI and licensing are incorporated using a model where increasing the international transmission of technology adds to efficient production in the receiving country and results in higher welfare. The model is then tested with data from a selection of 11 Asian economies and a strong positive relationship is found between FDI, licensing and economic growth. The policy recommendations from both our theoretical model and empirical results are that Asian economies should improve their production efficiency to host international technologies to maximise the benefits of international technology transfers.

Technology transfer, quality standards, and North–South trade

This paper examines the economic consequences of technology transfer through licensing in a North–South model of vertical product differentiation, based on a product-line pricing framework. With its limited technological expertise, the southern firm cannot export to the northern market without purchasing the northern firm's “clean” and low-cost technology. With North–South cost-asymmetry, we conclude that the transfer of technology through licensing promotes trade, product variety and improves global welfare. However, without government intervention, the private levels of product quality chosen by firms tend to be lower than the socially optimal levels. This finding helps to explain why developed countries often set quality standards for imported foreign products.

The transfer of management accounting practices from London counting houses to the British North American fur trade

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries management accounting practices were transferred from London counting houses to the British North American fur trade. This transfer involved a set of practices that was more effective for implementing the strategy being pursued at the time than the set used with the previous strategy. London counting houses had developed management accounting practices to facilitate their backward integration strategies with America and the West Indies. Pivotal to this development was the requirement for sub-unit accountability and responsibility.

Part-time research students: the`reserve army` of research students for universities

Over the past twenty years, in Australia, there has been a steady growth in the numbers of part-time research students. However, they have generally been invisible in government policy on research training, and have rarely been the focus of specific treatment in universities, where the full-time scholarship-holder is taken as the norm. Yet, these are people who often undertake their research in their workplaces on problems germane to their work. They do so with relatively less ‘drain on the public purse’ and they are well-placed to ensure their research has effect. This paper suggests that this ‘reserve army’ of research labour—part-time research students—could benefit from the integration of the perspectives that have driven other aspects of adult education with those, often economic rationalist perspectives, that have driven research training policy. In this way, government policy-makers may appreciate that this ‘reserve army’ provides good value, and universities may shape their research training policies and practices to provide support, infrastructure and supervision that matches the needs and contexts of part-time students, and which facilitates ‘technology transfer’ and links between universities and industries and the professions.

Commercialisation of new knowledge within universities : exploring performance disparities

This paper finds that vast disparities exist in new technology commercialisation outputs between a small percentage of high performing universities, and the remaining bulk of under-performers. Theoretical explanations for these findings are as follows. First, high performing universities attract resources, both human and financial, with a much stronger pull than lower performing universities. Second, this study confronts a gap in the literature with regard to the prominence of entrepreneurship within the innovation and technology development process. Third, this study brings new light to bear on the reliability and validity of evaluative tools (variables) currently accepted as indicators of innovation in the university technology transfer context.

Collaboration with entrepreneurship education programmes : building spinout capacity at universities

As the University Spin Out (USO) has become a highly desirable outcome for commercialization efforts, the development of entrepreneurial capacity within the university system becomes increasingly more important. We hypothesize that entrepreneurship education (EE) programs ceterus paribus may play a role in developing this capacity. This paper examines the attitudes and perceptions of academics who are directly involved in the field of EE programs with four research goals in mind: 1) to determine whether or not there are perceived advantages to collaboration between EE programs and technology transfer departments, 2) identify specific factors that influence these perceptions, (3) query academics as to perceived barriers to collaboration, and (4) to identify whether collaborations already exist and categorize them. Our findings suggest that significant advantages from collaboration between these two functions are perceived and that indirect linkages are believed to be more important than direct linkages.

Lab-on-a-chip : a component view

Miniaturization is being increasingly applied to biological and chemical analysis processes. Lab-on-a-chip systems are direct creation of the advancement in the miniaturization of these processes. They offer a host of exciting applications in several areas including clinical diagnostics, food and environmental analysis, and drug discovery and delivery studies. This paper reviews lab-on-a-chip systems from their components perspective. It provides a categorization of the standard functional components found in lab-on-a-chip devices together with an overview of the latest trends and developments related to lab-on-a-chip technologies and their application in nanobiotechnology. The functional components include: injector, transporter, preparator, mixer, reactor, separator, detector, controller, and power supply. The components are represented by appropriate symbols allowing designers to present their lab-on-a-chip products in a standard manner. Definition and role of each functional component are included and complemented with examples of existing work. Through the approach presented in this paper, it is hoped that modularity and technology transfer in lab-on-a-chip systems can be further facilitated and their application in nanobiotechnology be expanded.

Rethinking political process in technological change : socio-technical configurations and frames

The political process perspective has done much to enhance our understanding of the organizational effects of technological change as a negotiated outcome reflecting the political and power dynamics of the adopting context. In so doing, we suggest, technology has been marginalized as an analytical category and the problem of change agency, although better understood, remains largely unresolved. This article addresses these issues through the articulation of the concepts of socio-technical configurations and technological frames and explores their utility in understanding change agency through an action research project. The project sought a novel form of 'socio-technology' transfer, taking ideas and concepts of 'human-centered' manufacturing embodied in team-based cellular manufacture from a European context into three firms in Australia.

Why ERP systems fail to generate intended benefits in developing-country organisations

ERP adoptions in developing countries such as Sri Lanka have struggled to achieve intended benefits. To identify reasons for this problem, this paper begins by integrating ERP benefit-derivers models in developed countries, and Hayami’s technology-transfer model, which argues that three factors retard adoption of imported technology in a developing country, namely, culture, institutions and resources. The model is tested using four in-depth case studies in Sri Lanka. The results suggest that Hayami’s factors, culture, institutions and resources, are, indeed, key factors that make benefits from ERP systems difficult to achieve in Sri Lanka, and by inference, in other developing countries.

Intellectual property, creativity and innovation : IP models and the political economy of developing Asia

In advanced capitalist societies, intellectual property laws protecting such subject matter as copyright and patents are justified by a combination of theories, which include the provision of economic incentives to foster creativity and innovation and the prevention of unfair competition. IP academics and policy makers have differing views about the appropriate balance between these objectives and public interest considerations such as health, education and the protection of the environment. These different views entered the policy debate in Asian developing countries in connection with an unprecedented introduction and expansion of IP laws over the last 25 years. This paper will use case studies of law reform from Asia, in particular Southeast Asia, to show that the policy considerations of governments in reforming their laws were often quite different from the standard rationale mentioned above. As much of the IP was, at least initially, held by foreigners and introduced to attract foreign investment, national development considerations were joined with the more commonly quoted objectives to promote the rights, creativity and innovation of individuals. Such national development objectives at times coincided and at other times collided with official explanations and received wisdom about the effects of stronger IP rights.

Especially in the early postcolonial period, copyright laws and other IP laws were frequently restricted or simply not implemented, if they conflicted with development policies in areas such as education or public health. Such policies were slowly changing in the wake of WTO-TRIPS and other international agreements. Nevertheless, the implementation and enforcement of the IP laws has been uneven. Specialised institutions such as courts and IP administering agencies compete with other branches of government and administration for limited funding and a rich repertoire of informal dispute settlement procedures has kept the number of court cases relatively low. In some countries, censorship laws have influenced freedom of expression and led to quite idiosyncratic interpretations of intellectual property laws. Governments often also retain a role in the assessment of licensing and technology transfer contracts. And while there are many programs to foster individual creativity, in most cases R & D activities are still largely taking place in government institutions and this has influenced the thinking about intellectual property rights and creativity in the context of employment.

The paper uses a few case studies to examine the implementation of IP laws in selected Asian developing countries to point to the quite different institutional setting for IP law reform in comparison to European or American models. It reaches some tentative conclusions as to the likely effects on creativity and innovation under these different circumstances.

Balancing the benefits and risks of public–private partnerships to address the global double burden of malnutrition

Objective: Transnational food, beverage and restaurant companies, and their corporate foundations, may be potential collaborators to help address complex public health nutrition challenges. While UN system guidelines are available for private-sector engagement, non-governmental organizations (NGO) have limited guidelines to navigate diverse opportunities and challenges presented by partnering with these companies through public–private partnerships (PPP) to address the global double burden of malnutrition.

Design: We conducted a search of electronic databases, UN system websites and grey literature to identify resources about partnerships used to address the global double burden of malnutrition. A narrative summary provides a synthesis of the interdisciplinary literature identified.

Results: We describe partnership opportunities, benefits and challenges; and tools and approaches to help NGO engage with the private sector to address global public health nutrition challenges. PPP benefits include: raising the visibility of nutrition and health on policy agendas; mobilizing funds and advocating for research; strengthening food-system processes and delivery systems; facilitating technology transfer; and expanding access to medications, vaccines, healthy food and beverage products, and nutrition assistance during humanitarian crises. PPP challenges include: balancing private commercial interests with public health interests; managing conflicts of interest; ensuring that co-branded activities support healthy products and healthy eating environments; complying with ethical codes of conduct; assessing partnership compatibility; and evaluating partnership outcomes.

Conclusions: NGO should adopt a systematic and transparent approach using available tools and processes to maximize benefits and minimize risks of partnering with transnational food, beverage and restaurant companies to effectively target the global double burden of malnutrition.

Does growth attract FDI?

FDI is seen widely as a vital source of investment, technology transfer, and growth. The factors that attract FDI have been a longstanding source of debate. The authors present a comprehensive assessment of the accumulated evidence on one factor, the success of economic growth in attracting FDI. Meta-regression analysis is applied to 946 estimates from 140 empirical studies. The results confirm that, on average, economic growth is an important determinant of FDI. Overall, there is a positive correlation between growth and FDI and this is much larger among single country case studies than with cross-country analysis.