Approaches to International Technology Transfer Measurement – An Overview

Abstract

Summary The article addresses the issue of the international technology transfer (ITT) process. For most of the countries the ITT remains the main mechanism supporting the technological progress of the economy. Along with the growing importance of knowledge in every economy, technology diffusion taking place due to the ITT takes on a great and potentially even greater economic significance. However, there is no unified complex index of the process, which would indicate its scope and dimension in particular economies. In order to investigate the size of the process, a row of the following single measures are usually applied: the value of the FDI inflow into particular economy, the volume of imports, the value of the acquired intellectual property, the number of the patent application forms submitted by the foreign entities. Of the great importance is to analyse all aforementioned channels and estimate their value in different economies. To compare the process on the global scale, it is reasonable to evaluate the particular variables in relation to the GDP value in different countries individually. It would also allow to demonstrate the degree, to which the economy depends on the foreign technology.