St.

Marys University College

School of Graduate Studies (SGS) Department: MBA General Section C

Strategic management

Group Assignment

Article Review on Cultural Constraints on Transfer of Technology across Nations

Submitted to: Mesfin Lemma (Asst. Professor) Prepared By: Abera Tesfaye Gobena Worana Joni Getachew Mekonnen Muauz Melese Abebe ID: SGS/0061/2003 SGS/0076/2003 SGS/0078/2003 SGS/0049/2003 SGS/0079/2003

March, 2012 Addis Ababa

1. Introduction 1.1. Article Domain This conceptual article mainly focused on presenting a conceptual model of technology transfer across nations that explicitly takes in to account the roles of societal culture and organizational culture, receptivity to technological change on the part of the recipient country, research propositions explained by various links of models and examines the relevance these propositions have for future research in international and competitive management. 1.2. General Objective The general objective of the article is to examine the constraints on transfer of technology across nations 1.2.1. Specific Objective To assess the influence of variation on societal culture on technology transfer To assess the influence of variation on organizational culture on technology transfer To assess the influence of strategic management on technology transfer across nations To develop a conceptual model on culture in relation to technology transfer To formulate propositions for further research 1.3. Significance of the Article This article has tried to examine how culture constraint could highly influence on transferring technology effectively. And it has also paved the way by providing propositions for researchers to consider culture variation as a variable which can affect effective technology transfer. The researcher has identified different parameters that have influences when technology is transferred in between countries which have different level of development. This article has introduced the idea of considering culture as a variable which can affect effective technological transfer. In addition to this the article takes strategic

management issue in to account as a factor for transferring technology across nations and organizations found in different countries. The article shows technology feature and culture type have an influence on ease and difficulty of transferring technology. 2. Results Issues raised(major factors) major issues major constraints Technology feature Vs P1: Process and person embodied technologies are more difficult than product embodied to transfer and defuse across nations because cultural differences at the organizational, as well as the societal level play greater roles in such transfers Compatibility culture of societal P2: transfer of technology is easier between two Four organizations that are similar in terms of their Propositions

culture variation

(Hatsfelds

dimensional mapping)

culture societal/national culture based tendencies to either avoid or embrace uncertainty generated in their organizational contexts due to such transfers P3: technologies that might introduce significant changes in the distributions of power, status (real and symbolic, and rewards in the recipient organization of the developing country that emphasizes power distance are least likely to be effectively transferred. P4A: organizations located in individualistic cultures are more successful than organizations located in collectivistic culture in their propensity to absorb and diffuse imported technology. P4B: However, collectivistic cultures that are fairly masculine also are effective in such matters.

P5: Masculine cultures are more effective than feminine cultures in absorbing and diffusing imported technology In organizational contexts. P6: Abstractive cultures are more effective than

associative cultures in their ability to absorb and diffuse imported technology Differences organizational cultures in P7: differences in the negotiated orders of the cultures of the organizations involved in the transfer and diffusion of technology across nations adversely affect the

effectiveness of such transfers. Differences organizational in P8: cosmopolitan organizations and societies that also cultures have a sophisticated technical and an appropriate strategic management orientation are more effective than local organizations in systematically managing

(Absorptive capacity)

technological transfers.

3. Contribution Prior studies offered little in terms of theoretical understanding of the constraining influences of the cultural factors involved in such transactions. Culture of the recipient organization, strategic management issues and perhaps more important, the cultural differences between the two nations involved, play significant roles in determining the efficacy of such transaction. The researchers are developed new conceptual models and different propositions by integrating research concepts about culture and technology characteristics. The researchers have identified relevant and current to a particular scientific issues or managerial problems. The issues of cultural variations and strategic management addressed by the researchers have introduced in a way that its relevance to practice in the current global situation.

4. Foundation Before the researchers delineate the conceptual model they present an analysis of trends in research in this area. The research was built upon prior studies that deal with two focus area of theories and frameworks that other researchers have developed. First, studies which describe how technology gets transfer, what types of technology are likely to get higher levels of commitment on the part of the managers of the recipient organization and the nature and duration of the relationships as a function of the negotiations between the two enterprises (Balasubramanyan, 1973; Marton, 1986; Mason, 1980). Second, studies focus on the absorptive capacity of the recipient organization and the level of technological development of the host country (Baranson, 1970; Driscoll and Wallender, 1981; Dunning, 1981). Third, there are case studies that examine the ingredients of the effectiveness of technology transfer as a function of maturity of the industry, abilities of both the supplier and the recipient organizations and the life cycle stage of the technology involved in the transaction (Baranson and Harrington, 1977: Behrman and Wallender, 1976; Evenson, 1976; Marton, 1986). A great deal of emphasis has been placed on economic factors that affect transfer of technology but, there have been almost no theoretical or empirical analysis on the constraining influence of the cultural factors involved in such transactions. The researchers have identified these theories and frame works lacked specific empirical results in providing statically supported findings in the influence of culture in technology transfer across various nations. 5. Synthesis with the Other Material The study has strong relationship with strategic management, since it has raised strategic issues as a factor in effective transfer of technology between nations and organizations. Moreover, strategic considerations play greater role than either the

societal or organizational culture because, it affects international competitiveness relative position in the global market place and the critical nature of the technology. Example transfer of high technology from IBM of USA to Siemens of Germany is likely to be viewed as a strategic issue by both of the transacting organizations. 6. Analysis The researcher have not done a full research to address the problem rather it has invited to other researchers to make a research by proposing and stimulating different research problems. 7. General Critique The research builds up on prior researches which deal with how technology could be transferred effectively taking different constraints and factors into account. It has reviewed many researches comprehensively to find out how culture is taken into consideration as a constraint. The approach used by the researcher is properly done and executed well, by using different theories, framework the researcher develops conceptual models and proposed research issues with guidelines for further studies. The article has tried to review many studies done on technology transfer and its constraints and found out culture has not been considered as a factor. Therefore, it gives clue to other researchers to conduct an empirical research on this subject matter. The researchers have reviewed a lot of theoretical and empirical studies which were done locally as well as internationally and they have analyzed these findings to arrive at new a conceptual model and new research propositions which pave a way for further study. The researchers have examined a lot of nations with different level of industrial development i.e. industrialized, moderately industrialized and developing nations and type of cultures. They tried to observe how these factors have an effect on the effective transfer of technology.

We are not confident by the article result, since all of its propositions are on prior research which may or may not right findings. The researchers compare different country cultures and differentiated them without enough supporting evidence to propose the constraints of technology transfer. The technology type which they have proposed has an influence on technology transfer but, not supported by evidence rather it looks like their own conclusion. 7.1. Further Critique 7.1.1. Strength The researcher have seen technology type like product embodied, process embodied and person embodied and culture types like uncertainty avoidance, power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity and abstractive vs. associative of the different nations and identify them their characteristics and define them interums of their ability of transferring and receiving technology and its argument is supported by theories. 7.1.2. Weakness The researcher have proposed allots of issues to conduct a further research by other researchers but, the scope of the research is very broad it needs to see the culture type of many countries and their ability of technology transfer between the nations so it is difficult to manage in terms of cost and time. 8. In Relation to our Country Case When we see in our country the technology type is the constraining factor in technology transfer, especially process embodied and the person embodied technology types are the two technology types which face a great problem to be transferred easily from a nation (China) which speaks a different language and couldnt communicate with the international language i.e. English. In addition to this the commitment level of the exporting country to transfer the technology is too low.

Moreover, the level of use of strategic management to introduce new technology is not that much developed. While importing new technology it doesnt take culture into consideration. In our view, we observed that Ethiopian culture is much of feminine which emphasizes on helping others and putting relationship before money and achievement which have a substantial effect on effective transfer of technology. 9. Brief Summery Culture variations across nations and organizational culture based differences between organizations that are involved in the transfer of various kinds of technologies are considered two major factors that influence the success of transfer. Relevant contributions from cross-cultural studies on management and organizations are integrated into the literature on organizational culture and diffusion of innovations and conceptual model is developed implications for research in international and comparative management is discussed.