Factors Affecting Technology Transfer Process through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Plastic Industry
Subject Areas : Technology Transfer and Commercialization of ResearchesFarhad Shah miri 1 * , Seyed reza Salami 2
1 -
2 - Allameh Tabataba’I University
Keywords: Technology transfer, Foreign Direct Investment, Plastic Industry, Exploratory Factor Analysis,
Abstract :
Technology transfer is a multi-dimensional phenomenon which has been discussed from scientific, economic and political views not only in developing countries but also in western research institutions for many years. For diminishing the technological gap among advanced and less-developed countries, technology transfer (TT) is a must. TT ,depending on the situation of transferor and transferee, is done through different means. Importing products with high technology, tapping foreign technology, and employing international work force are among the most important methods for TT. Among these and the other general methods for doing so, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) which is usually used by multinational companies, is the main method to access the advanced technologies in industrial countries. FDI usually consists of 3 main elements namely capital, management and technology. All these three elements in order to achieve advancement in developing countries are needed. In this article, having studied the technology transfer and FDI literature and problems of the plastic industry in Iran, 40 affecting variables in 2 main categories were identified. First category known as specialized variables, consists of 8 variables and the other encompasses 32 variables known as general variables. Above-mentioned variables were accommodated in a questionnaire. These questionnaires were distributed among 3 main groups which were active in TT and FDI. These three groups are activist in plastic industry, TT experts and experts in Organization for Investment, Economic & Technical Assistance of Iran. After analyzing the collected data, using exploratory factor analysis technique, 13 main factors were recognized after studying the related literature.