Intra-Firm Technology Transfer Advantages And Disadvantages

932 Words4 Pages

INTRODUCTION

As many companies are faced with increasing competition in terms of market uncertainties, technological disruption and escalating research and development (R&D) cost, the management of intra-firm technology transfer plays a key role in the multinational corporation (MNC)’s overall technology strategy. These activities are heavily knowledge intensive, costly and complicated. MNCs strive to commercialize their knowledge base globally by mobilizing their technological competencies, transferring them across organizational boundaries, and selling the resulting systems, products, processes, and services worldwide (Malik & Bergfeld, 2015). This essay aims to reveal the complexities behind intra-firm technology transfer activities within an MNC environment, the major challenges managing such activities and how firms overcome them. Hence, the first 2 sections of this paper will begin by understanding intra-firm technology deeper using relevant management literature; discussing its advantages and disadvantages. Following the understanding of these activities, the paper highlights the challenges which arise during such intra-firm technology transfer activities and how firms have managed to overcome them with supporting examples. Finally, the last section will present some concluding remarks.

LITERATURE REVIEW ON INTRA-FIRM TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

Barton, (2007) defines technology transfer as a matter of flow of human knowledge from one human to another in forms of

Open Document