How to Succeed in Knowledge Transfer : Case Study of Scandinavian Alliance in Ukraine

The current study of Scandinavian multinational corporate subsidiaries in the rapidly growing Eastern European market, due to their particular organizational structure, attempts to gain some new insights into processes and potential benefits of knowledge and technology transfer. This study explores how to succeed in knowledge transfer and to become more competitive, driven by the need to improve transfer of systematic knowledge for the manufacture of product and service provisions in newly entered market. The scope of current research is exactly limited to multinational corporations, which are defined as enterprises comprising entities in two or more countries, regardless of legal forms and field of activity of those entities, and which operate under a system of decision-making permitting coherent policies and a common strategy through one or more decision-making centers. The entities are linked, by ownership, and able to exercise influence over the activities of the others; and, in particular, to share the knowledge, resources, and responsibilities with others. The research question is "How and to which extent can knowledge-transfer influence a company's technological competence and economic competitiveness?" and try to find out what particular forces and factors affect the development of subsidiary competencies; what factors influence the corporate integration and use of the subsidiary's competencies; and what may increase competitiveness of MNC pursuing leading position in entered market. The empirical part of the research was based on qualitative analyses of twenty interviews conducted among employees in Scandinavian MNC subsidiary units situated in Ukraine, using structured sequence of questions with open-ended answers. The data was investigated by comparison case analyses to literature framework. Findings indicate that a technological competence developed in one subsidiary will lead to an integration of that competence with other corporate units within the MNC. Success increasingly depends upon people's learning. The local economic area is crucial for understanding competition and industrial performance, as there seems to be a clear link between the performance of subsidiaries and the conditions prevailing in their environment. The linkage between competitive advantage and company's success is mutually dependent. Observation suggests that companies can be characterized as clusters of complementary activities such as R&D, administration, marketing, manufacturing and distribution. Study identifies barriers and obstacles in technology and knowledge transfer that is relevant for the subsidiaries' competence development. The accumulated experience can be implemented in new entered market with simple procedures, and at a low cost under specific circumstances, by cloning. The main goal is focused to support company prosperity, making more profits and sustaining an increased market share by improved product quality and/or reduced production cost of the subsidiaries through cloning approach. Keywords: multinational corporation; technology transfer; knowledge transfer; subsidiary competence; barriers and obstacles; competitive advantage; Eastern European market

Research intensity and knowledge transfer activity in UK universities

As the innovation process has become more open and networked, Government policy in the UK has sought to promote both research excellence in the university sector and the translation of this into economic benefit through university–business engagement. However, this policy approach has tended to be applied uniformly with little account for organisational differences within the sector. In this paper we consider if differences between universities in their research performance is reflected in their knowledge transfer activity. Specifically, as universities develop a commercialization agenda are the strategic priorities for knowledge transfer, the organisational supports in place to facilitate knowledge transfer and the scale and scope of knowledge transfer activity different for high research intensive (HRI) and low research intensive (LRI) universities? The findings demonstrate that universities’ approach to knowledge transfer is shaped by institutional and organisational resources, in particular their ethos and research quality, rather than the capability to undertake knowledge transfer through a Technology Transfer Office (TTO). Strategic priorities for knowledge transfer are reflected in activity, in terms of the dominance of specific knowledge transfer channels, the partners with which universities engage and the geography of business engagement.

Promoting healthy dietary behaviour through personalised nutrition: technology push or technology pull?

The notion of educating the public through generic healthy eating messages has pervaded dietary health promotion efforts over the years and continues to do so through various media, despite little evidence for any enduring impact upon eating behaviour. There is growing evidence, however, that tailored interventions such as those that could be delivered online can be effective in bringing about healthy dietary behaviour change. The present paper brings together evidence from qualitative and quantitative studies that have considered the public perspective of genomics, nutrigenomics and personalised nutrition, including those conducted as part of the EU-funded Food4Me project. Such studies have consistently indicated that although the public hold positive views about nutrigenomics and personalised nutrition, they have reservations about the service providers' ability to ensure the secure handling of health data. Technological innovation has driven the concept of personalised nutrition forward and now a further technological leap is required to ensure the privacy of online service delivery systems and to protect data gathered in the process of designing personalised nutrition therapies.

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.

Comparative study of policies on technology and industry in the Caribbean and their effects on development

Includes bibliography

Technology acquisition through licensing. Implications for firm strategy

Nowadays licensing practices have increased in importance and relevance driving the widespread diffusion of markets for technologies. Firms are shifting from a tactical to a strategic attitude towards licensing, addressing both business and corporate level objectives. The Open Innovation Paradigm has been embraced. Firms rely more and more on collaboration and external sourcing of knowledge. This new model of innovation requires firms to leverage on external technologies to unlock the potential of firms’ internal innovative efforts. In this context, firms’ competitive advantage depends both on their ability to recognize available opportunities inside and outside their boundaries and on their readiness to exploit them in order to fuel their innovation process dynamically. Licensing is one of the ways available to firm to ripe the advantages associated to an open attitude in technology strategy. From the licensee’s point view this implies challenging the so-called not-invented-here syndrome, affecting the more traditional firms that emphasize the myth of internal research and development supremacy. This also entails understanding the so-called cognitive constraints affecting the perfect functioning of markets for technologies that are associated to the costs for the assimilation, integration and exploitation of external knowledge by recipient firms. My thesis aimed at shedding light on new interesting issues associated to in-licensing activities that have been neglected by the literature on licensing and markets for technologies. The reason for this gap is associated to the “perspective bias” affecting the works within this stream of research. With very few notable exceptions, they have been generally concerned with the investigation of the so-called licensing dilemma of the licensor – whether to license out or to internally exploit the in-house developed technologies, while neglecting the licensee’s perspective. In my opinion, this has left rooms for improving the understanding of the determinants and conditions affecting licensing-in practices. From the licensee’s viewpoint, the licensing strategy deals with the search, integration, assimilation, exploitation of external technologies. As such it lies at the very hearth of firm’s technology strategy. Improving our understanding of this strategy is thus required to assess the full implications of in-licensing decisions as they shape firms’ innovation patterns and technological capabilities evolution. It also allow for understanding the so-called cognitive constraints associated to the not-invented-here syndrome. In recognition of that, the aim of my work is to contribute to the theoretical and empirical literature explaining the determinants of the licensee’s behavior, by providing a comprehensive theoretical framework as well as ad-hoc conceptual tools to understand and overcome frictions and to ease the achievement of satisfactory technology transfer agreements in the marketplace. Aiming at this, I investigate licensing-in in three different fashions developed in three research papers. In the first work, I investigate the links between licensing and the patterns of firms’ technological search diversification according to the framework of references of the Search literature, Resource-based Theory and the theory of general purpose technologies. In the second paper - that continues where the first one left off – I analyze the new concept of learning-bylicensing, in terms of development of new knowledge inside the licensee firms (e.g. new patents) some years after the acquisition of the license, according to the Dynamic Capabilities perspective. Finally, in the third study, Ideal with the determinants of the remuneration structure of patent licenses (form and amount), and in particular on the role of the upfront fee from the licensee’s perspective. Aiming at this, I combine the insights of two theoretical approaches: agency and real options theory.

An export strategy and technology networks in the Republic of Korea

In Korea, trade with Japan has had a deficit since the normalization of Japan-Korea diplomatic relations in 1965. Korea’s trade balance with Japan has remained in deficit since then, although Korean companies have become bigger compared to Japanese companies. My hypothesis is that the problem has been caused because Korea introduced technologies from Japan. However, in recent years Korean companies could not introduce technologies through technical cooperation with Japan like in the 1990s. In addition, the Korean government seemed to encourage domestic production for import substitution. Nevertheless, the deficit has continued. I thought it necessary to check my hypothesis in order to discover whether or not it was persuasive.

Environmental regulations and technology : use and disposal of municipal wastewater sludge /

At head of title: Technology transfer, EPA 625/10-84-003.

Technology sharing : a guide to assistance in obtaining and using research, development and demonstration outputs /

October 1979.

Technology transfers: benefits of Cooperative R&D Aggreements.

Mode of access: Internet.

Arming our allies : cooperation and competition in defense technology.

"OTA-ISC-449"--P. [4] of cover.

Foreign technology: collection and dissemination of Japanese information can be improved.

Mode of access: Internet.

Energy and technology applications.

Mode of access: Internet.

Implementation of P.L. 96-480 Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 [microform] : hearings (including an analysis of the hearings prepared for the subcommittee by the Congressional Research Service) before the Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Technology of the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninety-seventh Congress, first session, July 14, 15, 16, 1981.

"No. 81."