Effectiveness of external technology transfer to CEPP, UTM

Abstract

External technology transfer becomes more important as the increase of interdependent of the world due to globalization. Therefore linkage between research centre and industry is critical for both institutes to survival in this competitive landscape. The industry required advance technology to compete in global market while the research centre needs industry knowledge to sustain the continuous developing applicable technology. As a result, how effective the transfer of those technologies was concerned by scholar. Hence the study is carried out to investigate the factors that influence technology transfer from the industry to the research centre of UTM-Chemical Engineering Pilot Plant (CEPP) in Skudai, Johor. The objective of research is investigate the factor that influence the CEPP technology transfer project and clarify how the factor influence the effectiveness of CEPP technology transfer project. Factors that studied included: prior experience of transferor and transferee, inter-organizational interaction, nature of technology and culture difference. Set of interview questions were derived to conduct interview with 4 key personnel from the CEPP technology transfer project. The qualitative data gathered was analyzed by Miles and Hurberman (1994) to identify the pattern and themes. According to the findings, all of the factors show positive effective on the technology transfer performance except culture difference. This may due to the culture embedded by both parties is not significant different. It was recommended that embedded ‘open’ culture and cross functional interaction could improve efficiency during technology transfer.