A study of technology transfer in a multinational cooperative joint venture

The problem of technology transfer has been extensively addressed from many different perspectives. Very few of the research studies, however, have examined it as a process, trying to understand more about how different kinds of technologies are transferred across organizational boundaries. This research examines the transfer of technologies over a three-year period in an international joint venture comprising three operating divisions of large multinational chemical companies located in Germany, the United States, and Japan. A total sample of 208 technologies are identified as having been transferred between the venture's partners. Descriptions of the types of technologies, the methods used to transfer them, their degrees of success, and the organizational, national, and cultural differences in which the international transfers took place are investigated.