Technology transfer by multinational firms: The resource cost of transferring technological know-how

Abstract

The essence of modern economic growth is the increase in the stock of useful knowledge and the extension of its application. Since the origins of technical and social innovations have never been confined to the borders of any one nation, the economic growth of all countries depends to some degree on the successful application of a transnational stock of knowledge (Kuznets, 1966). In other words, the economic growth of every nation is inextricably linked to the successful international transfer of technology. Nevertheless, economists have been remarkably slow in addressing themselves to the economics of international technology transfer. The result is that “at both the analytic and factual level very little is known about the international transfer of knowhow” (Reynolds, 1966).