Technology Transfer in International Business (review)

BOOK REVIEWS. Paul C. Psaila, editor Agmon, Tamir, ed., Technology Transfer in International Business .............. 150 Andersen, Martin, Dossier Secreto .................................................................... 152 Aronson, Shlomo, Politics and Strategy of Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East and Findlay, Trevor, Chemical Weapons and Missile Proliferation154 Barnet, Michael, Confronting the Costs of War ................................................ 156 Bradnock, Robert, India's Foreign Policy Since 1971 ...................................... 157 Brubaker, Rogers, Citizenship and Nationhood ............................................... 159 Chandler, David, The Tragedy ofCambodian History and Brother Number One ................................................................................................. 161 Cooley, John, Payback: America's Long War in the Middle East ................... 164 Khong, Yuen Foong, Analogies of War ............................................................. 166 Lederçr, Ivo John, Western Approaches to Eastern Europe ............................. 168 Levine, Daniel H., Popular Voices in Latin American Catholicism ............... 171 Lieberthal, Kenneth G., ed. Bureaucracy, Politics, and Decision Making in Post-Mao China ........................................................................................... 173 Maclntyre, Andrew, Business and Politics in Indonesia ................................. 175 Mower, A. Glenn, Jr., Regional Human Rights ............................................... 176 Muravchik, Joshua, Exporting Democracy: Fulfilling America's Destiny ...... 179 Schraeder, Peter J., ed., Intervention into the 1990s: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Third World ........................................................................................... 180 149 150 SAISREVIEW Technology Transfer in International Business. By Tamir Agmon and Mary Ann von Glinow éd. New York, Oxford University Press, 1991. 285 pp. $19.95/ Hardcover. Reviewed by Hartmut Jacob, MA. Candidate SAIS. As part ofa prolonged research effort by the International Business Education and Research program of the University of South Carolina, Technology Transfer in InternationalBusiness seeks to explore the various dimensions oftechnology transfer in different aspects of international business. In general, technology transfer and international business are regarded as two distinct, but overlapping fields of inquiry. The purpose of this book is to explore the relationship between the two fields and to show that technology transfer and international business are highly intertwined. This collection ofindividual essays is divided into three main sections: the environment of technology transfer; various elements of technology transfer; and the practice oftechnology transfer in the Pacific area. Tamir Agmon and Mary Ann von Glinow bring together a diverse group of scholars with interests in these fields. The four chapters of the first section ofthe text deal with the changing global environment for international technology transfer, governmental concerns in relation to cross-border flows oftechnology, andthe historical dimensionofthe exchange oftechnology. These chapters representthe startingpoint ofthe analysis by placing technology transfer into a broad historical, economic and political environment. Since the 1950s, technology has emerged as a driving force of the integration and globalization of world business. A significant manifestation of the globalization process, as Denis F. Simon points out, is the rise of global companies, the transnational corporations (TNCs), which account for most of the world's commercially based transactions involving the movement of technology across national borders and for a considerable share of world trade. Technological developments help to generate economic growth and to increase world trade, both of which, as Raj Aggarwal stresses, reinforce the process of globalization. Globalization, however, can have an adverse impact on home countries , by reducing the control of home country governments over the transfer of technology. As a result, many countries impose restrictions to halt or retard the outward flowoftechnology. Forexample, COCOMwas afrequentlyused instrument by governments of developed countries to control the flow of advanced technology to the former socialist countries in Europe. COCOM not only limited the access of these countries to Western markets, but also penalized Western firms by refusing them the right to export to the area. Apart from national security objectives, as was the case of COCOM, intensified global competition for access to markets and technological progress often lead home country governments to restrict the flow of advanced technology to potential competitors in other countries. In many cases, technological advantages ofhome country firms last for only a short period oftime and, therefore, have to be protected effectively. Section two of the book identifies the channels through which technology transfer occurs; individual, spatial and organizational. Yair Aharoni focuses on education as the primary channel for the transfer oftechnology, be it international or domestic, and stresses the responsibility ofthe State for providing education or, BOOK REVIEWS 151 alternatively, allowing its residents to seek education elsewhere. Education is the most effective way to spread knowledge among people and a precondition for competing successfully in the global...