Towards Developing a Comprehensive Model of Technology Transfer to Developing Countries : a Comparative Analysis Approach

Technology Transfer (TT) is certainly not new to the business world. It has existed and persisted for centuries. In the past two to three decades, due to an increase in ITT and the increased interest of academia, a considerable amount of literature has been published in this area. Our understanding of the different dimensions of TT has matured thanks to the accumulation of studies in this area. Some of the dimensions of TT include, but are not limited to, TT among developing countries, TT among developed countries, TT from developed to developing countries, TT from university to government, and TT across industries. This study is mainly concerned with ITT from developed to developing countries. From this perspective, TT refers to the transmission, revision, implementation, adoption, adaptation, absorption, and diffusion “of such accumulated knowledge and know-how that are actually put to productive use” (Erdilek, 1985; Medcof, 2007).