ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the notion of international technology transfer and its main channels of transmission, and examines some of the overall strategies related to it, along with their implications for the overall industrialization strategy of developing countries. Packaged and unpackaged international technology transfers differ depending on whether the transferred technology arrives along with all the elements required to ensure its effective application. The chapter offers a brief review of the main transmission channels of foreign technology, with some possible categorizations of them, then makes explicit the underlying concept of technology and technological change that is employed when observing and analysing technology transfer. A more capable buyer will impose lower efforts and costs on the seller in an effective transfer of technology and the related knowledge. The chapter then presents some preliminary evidence on a sample of countries that illustrates some of the many possible strategies of foreign technology acquisition and local industrial and technological development.
