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Synonyms

Knowledge transfer; Technology commercialization; Technology valorization

Definition

Technology has been defined as “the capabilities of human society to transform natural resources into useful products for human consumption” (Storper and Walker 1989). The most common understanding of technology is that of objects which fulfill a certain function, but there are also wider definitions such as technology as installed techniques of production, operational processes, or personal know-how and skills of workers. If technology is defined as a combination of some or all of these elements, it has to be emphasized that a large component of technology is tacit knowledge, which is necessary for manufacturing, maintaining, operating, and adapting the technology to new environments (Cohen 2004; Wilkins 2002).

In this sense, technology transfer refers to the flow of “hardware” and “software” elements of technology, that is, equipment, methods, procedures, information, and know-how, from one...

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Correspondence to Julia Gottwald Dipl.-Ing .

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Gottwald, J., Buch, L.F., Leal Filho, W. (2013). Technology Transfer. In: Idowu, S.O., Capaldi, N., Zu, L., Gupta, A.D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_673

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_673

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