ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION The increasingly important role which technological change plays in determining competitiveness is now widely acknowledged. One implication of this is the need to explore better mechanisms to encourage the early adoption and transfer of technology, and this is of particular relevance in the case of small and medium-sized firms (SMEs). To rehearse the argument briefly (but see Rothwell for more detailed discussion), SMEs often lack the capacity for such technology transfer because of a lack of resources and capability [Rothwell and Zegveld, 1982]. Typically they have little spare manpower for the necessary search and scanning activities for identifying emerging technological trends, they lack internal experience in project management and implementation and have little capacity for absorbing costly failures. Resource limitations extend from financial and technological constraints to what may often be a serious gap in managerial capability in areas like firm strategy and project management.
