Abstract
Francis Bacon was the first person to express nearly 400 years ago that three major technological inventions—printing in literature, gunpowder in warfare and compass in navigation—had changed the world fundamentally (Bernard & Jones, 1996). The role played by the technological developments, innovations, and policies concerning science and technology in the development process of the countries has gradually gained importance with the phenomena of globalization in the twenty-first century. Although globalization and technological innovations are interrelated processes, it would not be wrong to argue that globalization in general is affected more by science, technological discoveries and innovations. It could be said that globalization has a certain effect on especially the creation and spillover of technology. The role of the technological developments and innovations in the productivity, rise in production capacity and international competitive power of the companies on the one hand, and rise in the employment rates of the countries, their industrialization levels and economic growth on the other hand have gradually increased in the twenty-first century and become a decisive factor.
Scientia est potentia
Francis Bacon
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Notes
- 1.
We will use the term “Multinational Companies” (MNCs), “Multinationals”, and “Transnational Corporations” interchangeably throughout the study to refer to the same concept.
- 2.
From here on, knowledge and technology transfers (KTTs) term is used throughout the study to analyze the transfers quantitatively through backward linkages, and to see what kinds of transfers are provided from customers to suppliers. We preferred to question firms by asking what kind of KTTs are provided from your customers. “Knowledge transfer” term is preferred to use for the tacit transfers such as training, know-how, and assistances; on the other hand, “technology transfer” term is preferred to use for the explicit transfers such as documents, machinery, equipment, manuals, and blueprints.
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Sönmez, A. (2013). Introduction. In: Multinational Companies, Knowledge and Technology Transfer. Contributions to Management Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02033-4_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02033-4_1
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