| Studying the process of international technology transfer embraces the fields of economic development, technology and innovation, cross-cultural management, and corporate strategy.This study seeks a middle ground between the broad scope of universal models and the narrow applicability of isolated empirical studies. By developing a limited set of comparative case studies, its purpose is to identify patterns in the relationships among international technology transfers and the contexts within which those transfers take place.Contextual influences include the home country of the technology supplier, the host country of the technology recipient, the relationship between the two governments, and the enveloping global industry within which both parent and affiliate firms operate.The international context for this study includes three quite different geographic locations sharing a common underlying Chinese social texture: Hong Kong, Singapore, and the southern province of Guangdong in the People's Republic of China.Within these diverse settings, four industries with distinctly varying technologies were examined: athletic footwear, food processing, electronics, and building materials. The study is composed of the leading transnational corporations in each industry transferring manufacturing technology to affiliates in the three countries. Cases were chosen to illustrate diverse technology types, transfer mechanisms, supplier and recipient characteristics, and host country infrastructure and government policies.A comprehensive model of international technology transfer, incorporating more than fifty variables, forms the basis of the structured interview questionnaire used in this research. To provide the framework for the study, a new contingency model was developed to include contextual influences and to subsume a large number of individual variables in fewer classes.Two one-month data gathering trips to Hong Kong, Singapore, and China in July 1989 and January 1990 resulted in personal interviews with affiliate managing directors, regional and corporate managers, government representatives, and academics.Although, no generalizations should be implied by cases in specific geographic and industry contexts, the emerging patterns in this composite study do suggest relationships among the contingencies of host infrastructure, government policy, industry competitive environment, the technology transferred and its transfer mechanism. |
