Technological Technological EnvironmentEnvironment

Technological Environment

• J K Galbraith defines technology as a ‘systematic

application of scientific or other organised

knowledge to practical tasks’

Classification of Technology

Technology can be classified according to any of the

following categories :-

• State-of-the-art-technologies : Technologies that

equal or surpass the competitors.

• Proprietary technologies : Technologies

protected by patents or secrecy agreements that

provide a measurable competitive advantage.

• Known technologies : Technologies that may be

common to many organisations but are used in

unique ways.

• Core technologies : Technologies that are

essential to maintain a competitive position.

• Leveraging technologies : Technologies that

support several products, product lines, or classes of

products.

• Supporting technologies : Technologies that

support the core technologies.

• Pacing technologies : Technologies whose rate of

development controls the rate of product process

development.

• Emerging technologies : Technologies that are

currently under consideration for future products or

processes.

• Scouting technologies : Formal tracking of

potential product & process technologies for future

study or application.

• Idealized unknown basic technologies : Technologies that, if available, would provide a

significant benefit in some aspect of life.

The Technology Cycle

Following classification, technology management

involves carefully implementing five stages :-

1. Awareness phase

2. Acquisition Phase

3. Adaptation Phase

4. Advancement Phase

5. Abandonment Phase

(See Fig. Below)

Technology Awareness

of marketable invention

TechnologyAcquisition

by self-generationor transfer

Technology Adaptation

Minor modificationsof acquired technology

for specific needs

Technology Advancement

Innovation involvingmajor modifications

of acquired technology

TechnologicalAbandonment

obsolescencing

External & internalEnvironment

Factors affectingthe technology user

Promotion

Need driv

en

expectations

Justification

Installation

1

2

34

56

Demolition

Time

The Technology Cycle, showing the five basic elements

of technology management at any given level (product,

service, function, work centre, plant/division,

corporation, industry, national or international)

applicable to deal with an existing or new technology.

The dashed lines represent ‘analysis’.

1. Awareness phase

• This is the first phase of the technology cycle in

which a company has a formal mechanism to

become aware of emerging technologies

• Some companies from ‘think tank’ with engineers &

scientists, who research from around the world &

put in short internal report form for the benefit of

corporate strategic planners & technology policy

markers.

2. Acquisition Phase

• To go from the awareness phase from acquisition

phase, the company’s technology group, in

collaboration with the industrial engineering group,

would conduct technical feasibility, & economic

feasibility studies before justifying & acquiring a

new technology.

3. Adaptation Phase

• Virtually every enterprise ends up adapting an

acquired technology for its particular needs

• If the homework done correctly, the transition from

acquisition to adaptation becomes much smoother

& less expensive

• Conversely, this not only frustrates the people

acquiring the technology but also slows down the

assimilation rate, causes major productivity losses,

& results in severe quality problems.

4. Advancement Phase

• When capital is limited one cannot indiscriminately

purchase & abandon technologies with scarce money

• It becomes imperative to improvise the acquired

technologies for one’s home needs.

5. Abandonment Phase

• This last phase of the technology is the most critical

• Bad timing in prematurely abandoning a product

could result in lost revenues, & on the other hand,

waiting too long to abandon might also result in lost

revenues because a customer may find a better

alternative in competition.

Impact of Technology

• We propose to discuss the impact of technology in

general, under three heads :-

a) Technology & social change

b) Economic effects of technology, &

c) Technology & plant level changes

(See Fig. Below)

Technology

A. Social implications C. Plant level changesB. Economics implications

High expectation of consumers

Systems complexity

Social systems

Social changes

Organisation structure

Resistance to change

Increased regulation & stiff opposition

Problems of techno-structure

Jobs become intellectual

Need to spend on R&D

Increased productivity

Fear of risk

e-Commerce

Telecommuting

Rise & decline of products & organisations

Boundaries redefined

Transportation

Markets

Technology transfers

Impact of Technology

A. Social Implications

• Perhaps the most striking influence of

technology is found on society as every area of social life & the life of every individual has

been, in some sense or the other, changed by the developments in technology.

A1. High Expectations of Consumers

• Technology has contributed to the emergence

of affluent societies, who want more of many

things than more of same things, like varieties

of products, superior in quality, free from

pollution, more safe, & more comfortable.

• This calls for substantial investment in R&D.

• One important compulsion for investing in

technological advances in Japan is its

customer’s high expectations regarding design

sophistication, quality, delivery, schedules, &

prices

• Industry owners in Japan swear by the dictum – the

customer is a god who is always right.

• High expectations of consumers pose a challenge &

an opportunity to the owners of business institutions.

A2. System Complexity

• Technology has resulted in complexity

• Modern machines work better & faster no

doubt

• But if they fail, they need the services of

experts for repairs

• They fail often because of their complexity

• A machine or a system is composed of several

hundred components

• All parts must work in tandem to accomplish

a desired task

• Reliable performance of each part, therefore,

assumes greater significance because of

interdependence of systems.

• Management is, therefore, under pressure to keep

the whole system working all the time.

A3. Social Change

• The role of technology on social change may be

observed in more than one way :-

First, there is the change in social life, which

results from a change in a technological

process. Thus, an invention may displace

thousand of workers, yet the same invention

may result in the creation of a new city some-

where else & create even more jobs than it

originally destroyed. Technological changes of

this sort create a turmoil in society.

Secondly, besides uprooting population,

technology directly changes the patterns of their

social life. An invention may open new employment

opportunities to women, radically change hours

spent at work & in the family, increase available

leisure time, open jobs to youth, & deny them to

middle-aged or old workers. Technological advance-

ment tends to smoothen out differences, as it creates

a more freer & egalitarian society.

Thirdly, though social differences tend to be ironed

out, status differences are likely to be created by

technological advancement in developing countries

as technology flows to less developed countries

mainly through multinational companies. In India,

the employees in foreign collaborations are paid much more than are paid in other local Indian companies, though they do the same job in the samefield.Fourth, the way we cook, communicate,use media & work are affected by technology. Even the language we use is changing, terms that until recently werenot even part of our lexicon have become common place. Social changes are also reflected in our vocabularies like, house-husband, surrogate mother,& domestic partner, etc. It is therefore, rightly saidthat the words are the bugles of social change. when

our language changes, behaviour will not be far behind.

Fifth, technology has its impact on religion in at least

two ways, first, religiosity has declined in

importance as consumers have come to rely on

technology rather than on benevolent deities for

their well-being. Secondly, (on the negative side),

modernisation pressures against genetically modified

foods to wholesale rejection of western technologies

by certain religious fundamentalists.

Sixth, technology has revolutionalised the education

system. The internet makes vast knowledge bases

available to a large number of people electronically.

It has virtually democratised education by enabling

in the very poor & remote countries to access the

world’s best libraries, instructors, & courses

available through the Internet.

A4. Social Systems

• Of particular interest is the knowledge of

technology

• At this level, technology creates a distinct type

of social system, namely, the knowledge society

• In the knowledge society, use & transfer of

knowledge & information, rather than manual

skill, dominates work & employs the largest

portion of labour force

• The knowledge-worker will have to show why

he should be retained, what benefit he can

offer to the organisation, & how he can add

value to whatever the organisation does

• He will have to create new jobs in consultation with

his employer

• A job will then become a joint venture

• When this happens, the worker can forget pension

plans.

B. Economic Implications

• Developments in technology also have

significant economic implications :-

B1. Increased productivity

• the most fundamental effect of technology is

greater productivity in terms of both quality

& quantity

• This is the main reason why technology at all

levels is adopted

• As a result of productivity improvements, real

wages of employees tend to rise & prices of

some products decline.

B2. Need to Spend on R&D

• Research & Development (R&D) assumes

considerable relevance in organisations as

technology advances

• Firms are required to consider, decide & take

action on at least six issues.

First, the allocation of resources to R&D.

It enables business improve corporate

performance by enabling the firm to better

develop synergies among product lines &

business units.

Secondly, technology transfer, the process of taking new technology from the laboratory to the marketplace is equally important when the company fails

to develop much in the way of major innovations.Thirdly, time factor is important in R&D. Companies can no longer assume that competition will allow them the time needed to recoup their investment.Fourthly, as new technology comes in, the old technology needs to be abandoned. The process of old replaced by new is called technological discontinuity. Such discontinuity occurs when a new technology cannot be used simply to enhance the current technology but actually substitutes for that

technology to yield better performance. The R&D

manager must determine when to abandon present

technology & when to develop or adapt new

technology.

Fifthly, the firm must also decide on its own R&D or

to outsource technology. As a rule, it may be stated

that a company should buy technologies that are

commonly available but make (& protect) those at

are rare, valuable, hard to imitate, & have no close

substitutes. In addition, outsourcing technology may

be appropriate when :-

• The technology is of little significance to com-

petitive advantage

• The supplier has proprietary technology• The supplier’s technology is better &/or

cheaper & reasonable easy to integrate into the current system

• The technology development process requires special expertise, &

• the technology development process requires new people & new resources.

The sixth & the final issue relates to the decision onproduct innovation or process innovation. In the early stages, product innovations are most

importantbecause the product’s physical attributes & capabilities affect financial performance considerably. Later, process innovations such as

improved manufacturing facilities, increasing

product quality, & faster distribution become

important in maintaining the product’s economic

returns.

B3. Jobs Become Intellectual

• With the advent of technology, jobs tend to

become more intellectual or upgraded

• A job hitherto handled by an illiterate & un-

skilled worker now requires the services of an

educated & component worker

• Introduction of new technology dislocates

some workers

• This makes it obligatory on the part of

business houses to retrain its employees & to

rehabilitate those displaced & untrainable

• Equal is the responsibility of the government

to provide training & educational facilities to its

citizens - those who pick up & acquaint themselves

with the new technology, the job will be rewarding

as they stand to gain through increased productivity,

reduced prices, & increased real wages

• Along with upgrading jobs, technology has its

impact on human relations

• Since interaction & activity affect sentiments, & they

begin to feel & think about one another & about

their work situation.

B4. Problem of Technostructure

• Not only jobs become more intellectual &

knowledge-oriented, even the incumbents tend

to become highly professional &

knowledgeable

• Such an enterprise has to face on this account

serious problems :-

First, motivation of such employees is a

difficult task because incentives as attractive

remuneration, job security, & just treatment,

hardly inspire the enlightened employees to

work more. They are instead motivated

by opportunities which offer challenges or growth

or achievement.

Secondly, retraining such employees for long is a

difficult job. Flighting & not sticking to one

company is their culture. The company has to make

several exceptions to discourage rootless ness of its

professional employees :-

• Regular attendance & punctuality have to be

relaxed

• Dual promotion ladders have to be established

so that distinguished technical people can rise

in rank

• Profit-sharing to be provided to give creative

persons a financial stake in the ideas they

create

• Attendance at professional get-togethers has

to be sponsored

• Writing professional articles has to be

encouraged & special assignments & part-time

teaching may be allowed.

Thirdly, scientific & professional workers constitute,

the technostructure. The technostructure tries to

control the organisation through influencing

management’s decision-making. But they are more

action oriented & are yet to learn social problems of

business decisions. Management is, therefore, in a

in a tight position to balance the ruffled feelings of

technocrats & the social consequences of business

decisions.

B5. Increased Regulation & Stiff Opposition

• A by-product of technological advancement is

the ever-increasing regulation imposed on

business by the government of the land & stiff

opposition from the public as the host govern-

ment has the powers to investigate & banproducts that are directly harmful or hurt

the

sentiments of a section of society.

B6. Rise & Decline of Products & Organisations

• Change of technology is a norm & not an exception

• This poses another problem to business

• A new technology may spawn a major

industry but it may also destroy an existing

one

• Transistors, for example, hurt the vacuum-

tube industry & xerography hurt the carbon

paper business

• A typical product, today, is subject to a cycle :

introduction, growth, maturity, decline, &

abandonment

• An organisation that is associated with particular

technology will go in sequence through the following

stages :-

(i) birth, (ii) growth, (iii) policy, (iv) procedure,

(v) theory, (vi) religion, (vii) ritual, & (viii) last rites.

B7. Boundaries Redefined

Technological changes have significant consequences

for industries :-

• Technological change is a potent force in the

reconfiguring of industry boundaries, it may

broaden or narrow generally excepted

industry boundaries

• As a consequence of its impact on whole

industries, technological change can have a

significant impact on the prevailing business

definition of individual companies. Companies

may find themselves in a different business

due to technological changes that they or others have

effected

• Technological change is one of the important factors

giving rise to product substitution & product

differentiation. Technological change is a dominant

force in shaping competitive dynamics in many

industries. It influences industry boundaries &

structure, product substitution & differentiation, &

the price quality relationships between products

• Technological change in the form of process (as

opposed to product) & materials innovations may

contribute to many of the impacts noted above

• Finally, for multi-product companies (preceding

discussion applies to single-business units),

technological change may have multiple impacts.

C. Plant Level Changes

• The impact of technology at the plant level is also

significant.

C1. Technology & Organisation Structure

• Technology has considerable influence on

organisation structure, length of the line of

command, & span of control of the chief

executive

• Where companies use technology, which is fast

changing, matrix structures are more common

• Some companies use a matrix even though the

rate of technological change is not fast

• Besides technology, other factors that have

their influence on organisation structure are

history & background of a company & the

personalities of the people who founded the firm &

managed it subsequently, but the impact of techno-

logy is considerable

• Line of command tend to be lengthy where the

production is routine & process based

• Decision-making is highly centralised

• It tends to be short if the production activities are

customised

• The use of specialists will be more & hence decision-

making gets delegated

• In mass production technologies, the number of

people whom an executive controls tends to be larger

than when the production is unit based

• Any technological advancement will result in :-

a) the expanded availability of a range of

products & services

b) substitution of capital for labour, leading to

higher productivity & lower costs

c) increases in sales or power for the innovating

organisation relative to its competitors

d) initiation of changes in behaviour among

customers, suppliers, employees, or society, &

e) side-effects on the quality of physical

environment.

C2. Resistance to Change

• The manager of a given business unit shall

face resistance to change as new technology

poses new problems

• The resistance to change is often psychological

• A typical businessman himself is opposed to

adopting new technology as it is expensive &

risky

• When he is making enough money with

obsolete technology why must he worry about

new technology?

Specifically, resistance to change stems from the following reasons :-1. Psychological or social commitments to existing

products, process & organisation,2. Sizable capital investments in long-life single-use

facilities,3. Low profits & reduced rate of growth,4. Small size or fragmented activities,5. Complacent top management,6. Industry norms & associations or cartels that

perpetuate industry-bound thinking,7. Lack of successful entrepreneurial models to emulate, &8. Powerful labour resistance to changes in methods.

C3. Fear of Risk

• There is always the fear of risk.

• A research oriented-company like DuPont

Corfam, an intended substitute for the fore-

casted shortage of shoe leather, after an invest-

ment of $3000 million, abandoned the project

in 1971 because of quality & cost problems.

C4. E-commerce

• The phenomenal growth of the internet & the associated World Wide Web has made e-commerce possible

• E-commerce is contributing to a growing per-centage of cross-border transactions

• It rolls back some of the constraints of location, distance, scale, & time zones

• The Web allows, both small & large, to expandtheir global presence at a lower cost than everbefore, wherever they may be located, & whatever their size

• Modern factories are now able to produce

goods in a shorter period of time (to produce one car

it takes less than 10 seconds) & with fewer defects -

thanks to the introduction of ‘Six Sigma’ quality

programmes

• Six Sigma is a statistical term that means 3.5 errors

per million, effectively eliminating performance

problems & ensuring that products conform to

standards

• While e-commerce focuses on marketing & sales

process, E-business emphasises integration of

systems, processes, organisations, value chains, &

markets

• Integration operate through Internet & helps build

new relationships between businesses & customers

The internet & e-business provide a number of benefits

in global business, including the following :-

1. Convenience in conducting business worldwide;

facilitating communication across borders which

brings markets closer

2. An electronic meeting & trading place, which adds

efficiency in the conduct of business

3. Power to consumers as they gain access to limitless

options & price differential

4. Efficiency in distribution

C5. Telecommunications

• The obvious dimension of the technological

environment facing international business is

telecommunications

• This growth is welcome as business, domestic

or global, cannot prosper without an efficient

telephone system, such as, 3G, MMS of

NOKIA.

C6. Transportation

• In addition to developments in computers &

telecommunications, several major innovations

in transportation have occurred since World

War II

• While the advent of commercial jet has

reduced the travel time of businessmen,

containerisation has lowered the costs of

shipping goods over long distances.

C7. Gobalisation of Production

• Technological breakthroughs have facilitated

globalisation of production

• A satellite based communications system

allows Texas Instruments (TI) to co-ordinate

on a global scale, its production planning, cost

accounting, financial planning, marketing,

customer service, & human resource.

C8. Markets

• Along with the globalisation of production, technological innovations have facilitated

the internationalisation of markets

• As stated earlier, containerisation has made it

more economical to transport goods over long

distances, thereby creating global market • Low-cost global communications networks

such as the World Wide Web are helping to electronic global market places

• In additions, low-cost jet travel has resulted in

the mass movement of people around the world

• This has reduced the cultural distance between the

countries & is bringing about convergence of

consumer tastes & preferences

• At the same time, global communications networks

& global media are creating a worldwide culture

• Worldwide culture is creating a world market for

consumer goods.

C9. Technology Transfers

Technology transfers includes :-

i) Internal transfer of technology from the R&D

or engineering department to the

manufacturing department of a firm based in

a country

ii) The same transfer of technology from a

laboratory or operations of an MNC in one

country to its laboratory or operations in

another country

iii) The transfer of technology from a research

consortium supported by many firms to one of

its members

• Simply told, technology transfer is a process that

permits the flow of technology from a source to a

receiver through published material

• Purchase & sale of machinery, equipment & inter-

mediate goods, transfer of data & personnel; &

interpersonal communication

Technology transfer comprise six categories :-

1. International Technology Transfer is across

national boundaries. Generally, such transfers take

place between developed & developing countries.

2. Regional Technology Transfer is transferred

from one region of a country to another.

3. Cross-industry or Cross-sector Technology

Transfer is transferred from one industrial sector

to another.

4. Interfirm Technology Transfer is transferred

from one company to another.

5. Intra-firm Technology Transfer is transferred

within a firm, from one location to another. Intra-

firm transfers can also be made from one

department to another within the same facility.

6. Pirating or Reverse-Engineering whereby

access to technology is obtained as the expense of the

proprietary rights of the owners of technology.

International Technology Transfer

Parties in the Transfer Process

i) Home country,

ii) Host Country, &

iii) The Transaction

i) Home country

• Argue that the establishment of production facilitiesby MNCs in subsidiaries abroad decrease their export potential

• Some of the MNCs imports stem from their subsidiaries, the volume of imports of the homecountry tends to increase

• Besides, technology transfer tends to effect adversely competitive advantage of the home country

• Labour unions in the home country too oppose technology transfer on the ground that the jobs generated from the new technology will benefit the host country citizens.

ii) Host Country

a) Economic Implications

b) Social Implications

a) Economic Implications

• Economic implications include payment of fee,

royalty, dividends, interest, & salaries to foreign

technicians & tax concessions resulting in loss to the

national exchequer

• All these are payable to the transferring country &

might prove very expensive to the host country

• Many times, the type of technology transferred by

international business is not appropriate to

developing countries, is designed to produce the

types of goods that a rich country needs

& to do so by methods, which are appropriate to

resources endowment of developed nations.

b) Social Implications

• Along with the transfer of technology, there is the

transmission of culture from the exporting countries

• The upper & middle class Indians are a case in point

• Majority of these neo-rich people are totally Wester-

nised & Americanised in their attitudes, behaviours,

food habits, & dress accustomedness

• This is because, we import technology from the

United States & European countries.

iii) Transaction

• This element focuses on the nitty-grities of the

transfer.

Stager in the Transfer Process

The transfer of technology between countries,

particularly from rich to developing nations, proceeds

in five different, but coordinated stages :-

1. Assignments, including sale & licensing agreements

covering all forms of industrial property including

patents, inventor’s certificates, utility models,

industrial designs, trademarks, service names, &

trade names.

2. Arrangements, covering the provision of know-how

& technical expertise in the form of feasibility

studies, plans, diagrams, models, instructions,

guides, formulations, service contracts &

specifications, &/or involving technical, advising,

& managerial personnel, personnel training, &

equipments for training.

3. Arrangements, covering the provision of basic or

detailed engineering designs, & the installation &

operations of plant & equipment.

4. Purchases, including leases & other forms of

acquisition of machinery, equipment, intermediate

goods, &/or raw materials insofar as they are part of

transactions involving technology transfers

5. Industrial & technical cooperation agreements of

any kind, including turnkey agreements,

international subcontracting, as well as provision for

managements of & marketing services

Technology is not a homogeneous phenomenon. There

are different types of technology, each posing fundamentally different problems & demanding

different solutions in the international transfer process.

International Technology Issues

Technology Issues

International Technology

Issues Terms of Technology

Transfer

Choice of Technology

Creating Local

Capability

Foreign TechnologyAcquisition

Globalisation

Barriers

Foreign Technology Acquisition

• One of the major issues in technology relates to the

mode of acquisition

• Developing new technology may conjure up visions

of scientists & product developers working in R&D

laboratories

• In reality, new technology comes from many

different sources, including suppliers, manufacturers

users, other industries, universities, government &

MNCs

• While every source needs to be explored, each firm

has specific sources for most of the new technologies.

Broadly the acquisition routes are three :-

A. Internal Technology Acquisition

B. External Acquisition

C. Combined Sources

A. Internal Technology Acquisition

• Internal technology acquisition option have the

advantage that any innovation becomes the exclusive

property of the firm

• In addition, the resulting technology will be tailored

to meet the firm’s needs

• However, internal development has risks

• The development take longer time than acquiring

already developed technology from external sources

• In addition, internally generated technology is more

expensive than the one acquired from outside

sources.

B. External Acquisition

• External technology acquisition is the process of

acquiring technology developed by other for use in

the company

• External technology acquisition generally has the

advantage of reduced cost & time to implement &

lower risks

• However, technology available from outside sources

was generally developed for different applications

• Therefore, external acquisition should contain an

aspect of adaptation to the acquiring co. application.

C. Combined Sources

• Many forms of technology acquisition are

combinations of external & internal activities

• Combined acquisition seek to overcome the

limitations of internal & external sources, taking

advantages of both the actions at the same time

Technology acquisition Routes

Purely Internal Purely ExternalSeizing Tacit X Knowledge

Internal R&D X

Internal R&D with XNetworking

Reverse XEngineering

Covert acquisitionWith R&D

Covert Acquisition X

Technology transfer X& Absorption

Contract R&D X

R&D StrategicPartnership X X

Licensing X

Purchasing X

Joint Venture X

Acquisition of Co.With Technology X

Choice of Technology

Terms & Conditions of Technology Transfer

Restrict Clauses No. of clauses/

Agreements

1. Export Clause

i) Permission of collaborator for exports

ii) Export permitted only to certain countries

iii) Export prohibited to certain countries

iv) Export prohibited

v) Export restricted to certain types of product

vi) Export restricted only to collaborators/

Agents/ Distributors

vii) Restrictions on use of trade marks for

exports

169

37

80

22

18

1

6

5

2. Sources of Supply of Raw Materials & Plant &

Machinery

3. Payment of Minimum Royalty

4. Restrictions on Production Pattern

5. Restrictions on Sale Procedures

6. Restrictions on Termination of Agreement

94

40

27

5

1

Total Number of Agreements with Restrictive Clauses 213

Globalisation

• The world economy is passing through structural

changes

• These changes are driven by globalisation of

business as well as by the revolution in information,

communication, & transportation technology

• Nations now have powerful technology in their

hands, fundamentally transforming the way in

which business is conducted around the globe

• The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is

contributing to globalisation by removing trade

barriers between countries & involving mechanism

for smooth conduct of trade among nations

• the WTO has also evolved a mechanism to manage

technology better

• The main provision of the WTO that influence

technology transfer are included under the following

sections :-

1. Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property

Rights (TRIPs)

2. Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMs)

3. Subsidies & Countervailing Measures (SCMs)

4. The Information Technology Agreements

(ITA)

Barriers to Technology Transfer

The final international technology issue relates to

barriers. The problems encountered in transfer of

technology are :-

• A limited general understanding of the concept of

technology, & the lack of consistent framework for

its study

• Lack of systematic planning for technology in

developing countries or misunderstanding of its

underlying philosophy

• Lack of bilateral scientific/ technology advantage in

the process of technology transfer (mutual benefits)

• Lack of systematic & integrated engineering & sicio-

economic approach to the technology transfer

process

• Lack of a relevant quantitative framework/

approach to the analysis & evaluation of technology

transfer to developing countries

• Failure to include ergonomic aspects in technology

transfer or to accord sufficient value to the human

machine interface variable of the transferred

technology, or the failure to adjust the technology to

the existing socio-cultural system

• Lack of attention to environmental consideration &

assessment of technological impact

• Failure to determine whether a national consensus

& orientation exist for a transfer

• Failure to recognise the local potential (cultural &

economic) for adoption of technology (that is, failure

to determine the availability of social & economic

infrastructures)

• Failure to determine if the existing national

productive capacity is adequate to support the

application of the transferred technology

• Restricting the feasibility study of technology

transfer to financial assessments (mostly cost benefit

analysis)

• Absence of any substantial effort to review & utilise

the potential of technological interchange & socio-

technical collaboration for technology transfer

between developing countries

• Presence of ethnical problems within the technology

transfer

• failure to evaluate or consider ‘conflict causing’

factors pertaining to the transferred technology.

these factors can be categories into :-

1. ‘sector conflict factors’ conflicts that can arise

within the techno-economic systems

2. ‘rural urban conflict factors’ arising because of

spatial (that is, regional) imbalance in the

distribution of physical resources needed for specific

industry in the long-term (for instance, sacrificing

the existing production institutions in an area in

order to initiate to new, imported, mostly large scale

technology), leading to

3. Factors ‘ disturbing the socio-cultural balance’ that

operate with in the social system :

due to the nonconformity of the transferred

technology with the available potential, & with the

inherent objective of development policies &

national techno-economic plans in developing

countries ; & due to the lack of specific software &

any other sophisticated supportive tools for

technological planning & technology assessment

within the technology transfer framework.