Toward a reconciliation of conflicting perspectives on North-South technology transfer

Abstract

Much of the controversy surrounding North-South technology transfer stems from the divergent views about the process between the sending country and the recipient country in terms of goals and objectives, the expected short-term and long-term benefits and costs, the time-frame for completion, and the basic understanding of technological innovation and its diffusion process. Some of these conflicting views have their respective theoretical foundations, others such as the causes of technological dependence cannot be explained by economics alone. To reconcile the conflicting perspectives calls for a general theoretical framework designed to examine intertemporal tradeoffs of costs and benefits, strategies of the transferer and transferee at various stages of the process, the conditions under which technology transfer is mutually beneficial, and the possible characterization of Pareto optimal arrangements.