Transnational Corporations, Technology Transfer and Development. A Bibliographic Sourcebook

156 Pages·1980·10.864 MB·English

by  Tagi Sagafi-nejad and Robert Belfield (Auth.)

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ON INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Transnational
Corporations,
Technology Transfer
and Development
A Bibliographic Sourcebook
Tag) Sagafi-nejad
Robert Belfield
Foreword by Howard V. Perlmutter
Pergamon Press
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Copyright © 1960 Pergamon Press Inc.
Second printing, 1984
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Sagafi-nejad, Tagi, 1941-
Transnational corporations, technology transfer and
development.
(Pergamon policy studies on international development)
Includes index.
1. Technology transfer. 2. International business
enterprises. I. Belfield. Robert, 1951·
joint author. II. Title. III. Series.
T174.3.S23 1980 336.91 60-36667
ISBN 0-08-026299-©
All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means:
electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Printed in the United States of America
To our families with love
Foreword
Howard V. Perlmutter
It is the explicit premise of the research programs of the
Worldwide Institutions Center of The Wharton School that the
Transnational Corporation (TNC) is already undergoing a major
transformation in both the concept of its essential functions
and the direction of its evolution. The present collection of
source materials is a significant contribution in that it contains
the factors and forces which will govern the TNC transforma
tion process.
Sagafi-nejad and Bel fi eld have accomplished the formidable
task of assembling a selective but extensive bibliography
around some basic propositions: a) that science and technology
are crucial to development, b) that the nature of the gaps
between rich and poor countries and the more and less in
dustrialized advanced countries is technology-specific and
infrastructure-related, c) that TNCs are the key actors in the
international trade in technology.
The editors also provide evidence through the assembled
readings regarding the current debate which surrounds the
TNC concerning the modes, appropriateness, costs and conse
quences to the technology transfer and development process—
especially for the technological self-reliance of nation states.
The readings make clear that there is no perceived
identity of interest between the home and host countries in the
technology transfer process—something which might have lead
to normative research on transnational development of tech
nology .
Upon examination of the readings as an aggregate, we can
see that they reflect the present relative directions of the flow
of technology: a) within the advanced countries from the U.S.
to Western Europe and Japan b) from the advanced countries
ix
X FOREWORD
to the less industrialized countries. It is evident that much
data is missing because it has not been collected, or it is
difficult to collect and/or the flows are still relatively small.
There is at this stage of our knowledge, less illumination
regarding the nature and extent of the flows of technology in
such directions as: a) flows within the so-called advanced
countries from Western Europe to the U.S. and Japan, and
from Japan to Western Europe and the U.S.; b) flows between
the more industrialized countries and the socialist countries of
Eastern Europe; c) flows from and between socialist countries
of Eastern Europe and the People's Republic of China and the
less industrialized countries and d) flows from and between the
less industrialized countries to the more industrialized coun
tries.
This data shortage may not be surprising, but from the
perspective of an increasingly interdependent global industrial
system, wherein the TNC seeks to be both viable and legiti
mate, we can anticipate some features of the TNC transfor
mation process. The transformation of the TNC is likely to
occur in a series of successive adaptations and accomodations
of the TNC with its various key stakeholders, including the
shareholders, customers, suppliers, joint venture partners,
licensees, employees (and trade unions), but most especially
governments ·
We need as well to understand the global flows that occur
in the various industrial and commercial sectors, in high,
intermediate, and low technology, in the extractive, service,
manufacturing and agricultural areas. For if there will be a
struggle for global niches or market segments from advanced
developing and socialist countries (as appears likely,) there
should be differences in technology development strategies.
A major shift in our thinking is necessary as regards the
definition of the TNC. By UN definition, TNCs come in many
varieties: small, medium and large, domiciled in advanced,
socialist and third world countries, private, mixed in owner
ship or state controlled. The flows between these different
types of international actors has not been studied because as
yet we have no clear image of the networks which carry
technology around the world.
Technology, it has been said, is "out of the bag," and
the world of micro-electronics will accelerate the process.
Access to the full range of technologies is within the grasp of
most countries by the end of the 1980s.
But we need to consider not technology in the abstract,
but the way it related to the global Problématique, which
includes both danger and opportunity. Technology can be
used to assure collective violence as well as meet basic human
needs, to further endanger the ecosystem or to harmonise and
explore its potentialities. Thus, the ends and the means are
related.
FOREWORD xi
The TNC's essential functions in the area of transferring
and developing technology, its structures, policies, and capa
bilities are likely to become less oriented towards unilateral
flows and more oriented towards bilateral and multilateral
technology flows between and within advanced, developing and
socialist countries.
Much depends upon how governments and TNCs try to
rebuild this transformed global industrial system and upon how
accomodations are reached as regards the universal need to
increase some measure of technological self-reliance in each
country. But it is likely that the TNC will be the main arena
and vehicle through which this learning process will take place
in its transformed state.
We at The Worldwide Institutions Research Center are
happy to support this volume, and express our gratitude to
the editors for their contribution in understanding the past
and present literature on Technology Transfer and Develop
ment. We hope there will be successive updatings.
The value system underlying these and all efforts of the
Worldwide Institutions Research Center should remain explicit:
we need to learn how to build a just global industrial system
based on partnerships which are mutually rewarding, on at
least moderate trust, in the context of a global political system
where humans and not technology are the ends.
Howard V. Perlmutter, Director
Worldwide Institutions Research Center
The Wharton School
Introduction
The appropriate utilization of modern technology and science is
among the major requisites of national development, indus
trialization, and material prosperity. The most important actor
in the generation, application, and international transfer of
modern technology, especially since World War II, has been the
Transnational Corporation (TNC). The emergence of the TNCs
and the evolution of their global reach vis-a-vis the modern
ization needs of nation-states, has made the subject area now
known as Technology Transfer one of the most complex but
fascinating topics of our time. This new research area has
become a prism for a constellation of related issues, among
which are the role of technology and science in industriali
zation, the gaps between rich and poor nations—and the gaps'
implications for both, the TNC as both the culprit and the
savior, and the New International Economic Order.
Technology Transfer and Development (TTD) has emerged
as an independent research area only recently. The first
major institutions to investigate the subject in a subtained
manner was the United Nations. Various UN bodies and
agencies, such as the UN Secretariat, UNCTAD, UNESCO,
UNIDO, ILO, UNITAR, WIPO, ECE, ECLA, ECAFE, ECWA, The
World Bank, UNDP, and others, have undertaken research into
various aspects of TTD since the early 1960s. Such other
international and regional organizations as the OECD, the
Organization of American States, the Andean Common Market,
and others, have also dealt with the subject. An interesting
aspect of this field of inquiry is the rapid acceleration of
interest and involvement by nearly all of the above institutions
in the study of numerous dimensions of TTD.
Similarly, interest in technology transfer has accelerated
in a variety of academic disciplines.
xiii
xiv INTRODUCTION
As one of the truly multi-disciplinary subjects of inquiry,
TT has provided a conceptual anchor for many traditional
disciplines. Those doing research on this subject now include
political scientists, economists, sociologists, anthropologists,
engineers, natural scientists as well as the interdisciplinarians
in international relations, international business, comparative
management, history of science and technology, among others.
These efforts and studies relate primarily to the concerns of
each discipline, but they also contribute to an understanding
of TTD. Certainly, they demonstrate the interdisciplinary
nature of the subject.
This rapid proliferation of studies by various scholars
and institutions has pinpointed with increasing intensity the
need for a comprehensive compilation of citations. Our initial
interest in such a collection grew out of the Technology
Transfer and Development Project which began in 1974 at the
Worldwide Institutions Research Center of the Wharton School
at the University of Pennsylvania. Both the TTD Project and
a graduate seminar on the subject led us to acknowledge the
critical need for a comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography.
This led to a first edition of the present work, which was
published through the Worldwide Institutions Group of the
Wharton School in 1976. That volume contained nearly 2000
references and was organized in a similar fashion to the
present one. Since the first edition was published, the liter
ature on TTD has continued its exponential growth, as a
result of the continued world-wide interest in the subject.
Added impetus to the already accelerating interest in TT
was provided as a result of massive preparatory work which
preceded UNCTAD V in Manila in May of 1979 and the equally
massive work which was sparked the world over in preparation
for the first United Nations Conference on Science and Tech
nology for Development (UNCSTED) in Vienna in August of the
same year.
When the International Conference on Technology Transfer
Control Systems was held in 1979, an Addendum was produced
and made available to the participants.
The present volume is consolidated result of the first
edition and the Addendum. It is supplemented and corrections
have been made.
We are, however, painfully aware of the built-in obsole
scence associated with an effort as massive as the present one:
as soon as bibliography is off the press, it will be out of
date. And yet it is the only reference source available in its
kind by virtue not only of comprehensiveness of coverage but
also because each sub-topic is organized separately and intro
duced in a short introductory essay.
The purpose of this bibliography is to bind together
useful materials from academic and non-academic sources—as a
means of identifying the state of the art of our understanding.
INTRODUCTION xv
The location of relevant citations proved to be our central
difficulty as the wide range of cited journals and documents
testifies. The following guides to literature proved useful to
our search: Business Periodicals Index, Guide to Periodicals
Literature, Journal of Economic Literature, Public Affairs
Information Service, Social Sciences and Humanities Index,
Social Science Citation Index, and the National Technical
Information Service. A number of prior bibliographies were
also helpful. These are;
Baranson, Jack. Technology for Underdeveloped Areas: An
Annotated Bibliography, New York: Pergamon Press,
TWT.
Burtis, David, et al. Multinational Corporation - Nation-state
Interaction: An Annotated Bibliography. Philadelphia:
Foreign Policy Research Institute, 1971.
Cornell University. Science and Technology for International
Development: A Selected List of Information Sources in
the United States and Bibliography of Selected Materials.
2nd ed. Cornell University Program on Policies for
Science and Technology in Developing Nations, February
1975.
ECE/UNCTAD. Technology Transfer. A bibliography of
materials available in the ECE/UNCTAD Reference Unit,
including a complete list of UNCTAD publications, 1964-
1974. Geneva: ECE/UNCTAD (Bibliography 9), January
1975.
ES AN. Technologia Para El Desarrollo. (Technology for De-)
velopment.) Lima, Peru: ES AN, Centro de Documenta-
cion, undated.
Hungarian Central Technical Library and Documentation Cen
tre. Management of Transfer of Industrial Technology: A
Select Bibliography. Budapest: OMKDK - Technoinform,
April 1975.
Lall, Sanjaya. Foreign Private Investment and Multinational
Corporations: An Annotated Bibliography. New York:
Praeger, 1975.
Research Policy Studies, Science and Technology for Develop
ment: International Conflict and Cooperation! Five vol
umes. Compiled by Cynthia T. Morehouse and Pamela M.
D'Onofrio. (Lund: Lund University, April 1977 to April
1979).
Technology and Culture. Bibliography in April issue, an
nually.
United Nations. Survey of Research on Transnational Corpor
ations (New York: UN Centre on TNCs, 1977).