Technology Transfer: Political Pressure, Economic Necessity, Social Phenomenon, Financial Reward, or Intellectual Pleasure?

Technology transfer relies on novel ideas. Ideas can only come from individual scientists or engineers, or small groups of those individuals. But to have an effect on industry, ideas should usually move through institutional frameworks that offer many of the needed resources. Hence, there are two major players: individuals, who are at the core of the transfer of ideas and who effect interpersonal knowledge transfer, and institutions, which offer the framework for interorganizational technology transfer. Much has been written on statistical measures and results that judge the success of institutions. But what makes individuals and institutions tick? What are the major motivations and forces that drive the transfer process in an environment of scientific institutions and individuals who are primarily committed to new scientific insights and peer recognition? This paper makes a modest start to answer these questions, more so by anecdotal evidence than by rigorous socioeconomic studies. What I hope to achieve is stimulation of a more systematic approach to the factors underlying technology transfer.

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