ZEMEN POST-GRADUATE COLLEGE

Department of Management

MA in Project Management

A term paper prepared as the partial fulfillment of the course

requirements of Management Technology and Innovation

By:

Jemal Ebrahim

March, 2014

Dessie/Ethiopia
Introduction

Technology is an asset and it plays a crucial role in enabling the competitiveness of companies in
most industries. Technology is an integral part of every business and social endeavor. According
to scholars it includes human expertise, organizational structure, and information assets in
positioning a company for global competition. On the other hand, technology is the process that
any company uses to convert inputs of labor, materials, capital, energy, and information into
outputs of greater value (Christensen and Raynor 2003). Technology transfer is a diffusion of
technologies into the economy and adoption of technologies by transfer recipients. It is a system
of learning, adapting and utilizing as well as disposing imported technologies in order to meet
national demand (Rahm and Hansen, 1999). Technology transfer is the process of creating,
adapting, accumulating, and transferring from the source to the end-users. The source is the
creators or innovators of the technology while the users are beneficiaries of the technology. It is
the process of providing the technology that developed in one organization or TVET for another
potentially useful purpose, and it is concerned with the transferred technology from TVET or
industries environment. Technology transfer includes formal and informal ways between
technology creators and technology users. To change the inventions into fruitful innovations they
transferred to organizations with all necessary things like marketing experience, implementation
capacity. Technology transfer considers as a branch of knowledge transfer in the form of
transmitting and/or sharing skills, knowledge, innovation, technologies, and mechanisms among
governments, firms, research agencies, and other organizations in ensuring that technological
growth and its accessibility to a wide range by users, who can then further domesticate, develop
and exploit the technology into new products, processes, applications, materials, or services. In
this assignment, the group members have tried to see the practice of Technology Transfer (TT),
factors affecting the practice of technology and challenges faced with the case polytechnic
colleges/W/ro Siheen and Kombolcha/. And finally the group members have tried to forward
possible way outs for a better technology transfer practice of the colleges and the stakeholders.

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The process of Technology transfer (TT) in W/ro Siheen Polytechnic College and
challenges of TT:

W/ro Siheen Polytechnic College was founded in 1922 around the area of Salaysh, by daughter
of King Michael, Siheen. In 1993, it became a full-fledged technical and vocational institution,
and in the year 2003. The college grew into W/ro Siheen Polytechnic College and currently has
24 departments and 10 workshops to train students and to affect other relevant duties of the
college. The college for the past years has been giving technical and vocational training as well
as support to MSEs enabling them to develop their productivity and sustain in the market
competition. The TVET in Dessie offers technical courses such as Furniture, manufacturing,
electricity, agriculture, plumbing, construction, industrial electrical machinery and technology,
health extension, and sanitation. It offers three-year courses in a number of areas, in addition to
shorter courses of 3–6 months in certain subjects (masonry, carpentry, plumbing, cobblestone,
IT). Young Amhara men and women, as well as other students from outside the region, are
accessing TVET three-year courses. And of course, W/ro Siheen Polytechnic College is among
those colleges from which a large number of skilled labor forces are graduated each year in
eastern Amhara, and information taken from the registrar office show that more than 1000
students are graduated each year in different sectors and occupations.

Regarding the practice of technology transfer in the college, as we observed and asked the
manufacturing department head, the major technology sources of the department and trainers are
the internet; indigenous systems, agriculture bureau recommendations, as well as the trainers use
other colleges’ technology manuals. For the last three or four years, the college adopt and
transfer technologies like, welding machine, modern bee hives, three chamber compost
preparation peen, Hay raillery and Modern poultry house. Among the transferred technologies
modern welding machine and bee hives are effective and transferred to the MSEs in
collaboration with NGOs through technical and financial support.

As we discussed with the department personals, they identified key stockholders like the MSEs,
agriculture bureau and NGOs on technology transfer and development. However, we noticed that
the department has no formal and standard MSE gap identification checklist which is used to get
input to identify intervention areas and needed support types. The interventions of the Colleges

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were mostly campaign-based (do not have regular support programs) and they did not conduct
post-intervention assessment to measure preceding support impacts which are used to improve
their support quality and grant continuous improvement.

Challenges of technology copy and transfer identified by the department personnel’s

Administrators give low attention to the departments

Budget and resource limitations
Lack of promotional platforms for experience sharing and knowledge exchange
Absence of bazaars and market facility to support MSE businesses
Technical skill gaps because of high turnover of personals
Remoteness of the college from the center, limits communication and exposures of
experience sharing
Luck of researches on the area
Lack of effective and wide collaboration spectrum among stockholders
Absence of training and standard manuals used to train others

The practice of Technology transfer (TT) in Kombolcha Polytechnic College and challenges
of TT:

Kombolcha Polytechnic College is established in 2001 With One Campus, but now, it has Three
Campuses & Provides formal and Non –formal training. Besides The TVET Training Program
the College is providing a BSC degree Program Training for TVET Trainers in 4 Different
Departments. The College is certified in ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management. Currently, the
College is providing training on Industrial Sector, Economic Infrastructure, Construction, Hotel
& Hospitality and Agricultural Sectors. Among the Economic Infrastructure sectors, automotive
technology is the one which is still highly demanded by the industries, MSEs’ and also by
private and government owned garages. Similar to W/ro Siheen poly technic Colleges, the main
role of Kombolcha poly technic college is providing technical skill and technology capacity
building to the trainer and also initiating/ encouraging and creating a sound environment for the
trainer to conduct new or copied technologies which are competent and qualified in terms of
product/services & transferring to MSE’s. Furthermore, it gives training like Kaizen to improve

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their production and entrepreneurship to augment their business ideas based on the need of their
areas.

As respondents from Kombolcha polytechnic college point out that in their area there are
favorable conditions to develop and transfer technologies which are considered as good
opportunities. These are the existence of high demand of technology in the community and
MSEs and the flexible nature of the community to adopt new technologies. Based on the nature
of the economy, demand and other related factors they also identified potential fields of work
around the area with relation to their departments and MSE engagement. The trainers in
Kombolcha polytechnic college identified that Construction, Furniture, Agriculture,
Manufacturing (metal work), Garment, Plumber and water supply, Electric installation; ICT
etc…fields are viable business in the area which directly related to their departments. Even if
these considered as potential sectors, respondents also identified the main obstacles that would
hamper their duty of technology transfer and which hold back the development and effective
involvements of youths and MSEs in the zone level, the major ones includes:

Poor linkage between TVETs and their major stakeholders (MSEs),

TVETs staffs’ capacity gap in technology transfer, resistance to accept and use new
technologies by MSEs; meager promotion to promote the technologies;
Problem of finance in TVETs;
Undesirability of technologies manufactured by MSEs and absence of legal protection.
Lack of electricity
Pure technical capacity of work force (MSEs and unemployed youths)
Low access of initial capital and lone
Lack of technical support for MSEs
Unavailability of affordable technologies
Lack of promotional and advertisement platforms (like bazars and exhibitions)
By principle on MSE setups technologies are considered as a tool which helps to cope up
challenges and helps to MSEs able to produce competent products for the existed markets.
However there is technology demand in the area, the trainers in Kombolcha polytechnic college
identified as there are many challenges to develop and transfer technologies for the community
and MSEs starting from College’s setups. And the main challenges of technology transfer in the

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college and it shows they considered lack of sectoral support and unavailability of an appropriate
research center in the area are core challenges. Following these, financial limitation, skill and
knowledge gap, lack of research, and unavailability of new technologies are sated as further
challenge. Due to these and other related institutional problems, the trainers cannot engage in any
technology transfer and innovation activities as well as have no working relationship with other
sectors, experience sharing practices, technology transfer tracks and MSE support experience at
all.

Influencing Factors of Technology Transfer in case Polytechnic Colleges

I. Law and Policy Factors

Technology is a kind of knowledge product; it needs to be protected by the legal system,

particularly in the field of intellectual property rights. The degree of protection for intellectual
property rights varies in different countries in the cross-border business environment. The policy
system plays a decisive role in the effectiveness of technology transfer. It is difficult for
technology transfer to succeed in a country or region, where there are frequent government
interventions, and many restrictions on foreign-funded enterprises. Policies of technology-
importing countries or regions will have a direct impact on technology transfer in scientific
technical and quality contents. Likewise, in the case polytechnic colleges, we have identified that
the existence of weak degree of protection for intellectual property rights together with
cumbersome bureaucracy of getting patent right are among the factors that affect the process of
technology transfer.

II. Market Factors

Market factors are the fundamental factors of technology transfer. The effect of market
competition and market size on technology transfer is particularly obvious. In our case, besides
undesirability of technologies manufactured by trainers from the polytechnic colleges and
organized MSEs, the existence of small market size together with meager promotion to promote
the technologies (lack of promotional and advertisement platforms (like bazars and exhibitions))
can be considered as a factor that affect the process of technology transfer.

III. Technology Basis

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A nation or region’s technology basis is important for technology transfer. The availability of
human resources, the knowledge level, the development of productive forces, and the technology
level will have a real impact on the transfer. The countries and regions with a great technology
base and high skill levels will be capable of exporting technology. The conditions of technology-
importing countries or regions restrict their ability to accept new technologies. If other conditions
remain constant, the country with high-performance technology and good technical basis is more
likely to promote the country’s technology transfer. In our case, MSEs negative attitude in using
colleges indigenous product and relying on imported product has been identified as an obstacle
of in implementation of technology transfer between polytechnic colleges and respective
stakeholders.

Iv. Infrastructure Status

Infrastructure includes transportation, canals, ports, bridges, telecommunications, electricity,

water and urban water supply and drainage, gas, electricity, and other facilities. These are
substantial engineering facilities to provide public service for production and the residents. It is
the common material base for production, management, work and life, and guarantees that the
main facilities in a city operate normally. Moreover, it is not only an important condition for
material production, but also an important condition for reproduction of labor. In our case, we
have seen that lack of electricity is identified as an obstacle of in implementation of technology
transfer between polytechnic colleges and respective stakeholders.

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Conclusions

Technology is very essential not only for the growth of small enterprises but also for the overall
economy of any nation. Many developing countries consider technology transfer from developed
countries considers as vital elements of development. The objective of Technology transfer is to
increase the productivity of enterprises and enhance the quality of goods manufactured by
enterprises to withstand national and international competition. TVETs are transferred effective
foreign technologies to MSEs and other industries to used them and get a certain valuable result.
TVETs sectors are expected to follow up MSEs timely on transferred technologies. TVET
institutions are expected to deliver service packages, such as skills pieces of training on
entrepreneurship, business management, technology adaption and transfer, productivity, quality
control, and product standardization are focused to give a solution for the headaches of Ethiopia
MSE. The Ethiopia Science, technology, and innovation policy document points to the
responsibility and function of use TVET schools on the aspects of technological growth and
transferability that, TVET are centers of technology and consulting to SMEs to provide them
with coordinated and effective extension services (MoSTI, 2012). Based on our assessments on
the practice of technology transfer program in the two case polytechnic colleges, we conclude
that the main technology transfer process gaps of TVET colleges and some sectorial bureaus
were identified; and thereby lack of sectorial integration on technology transfer, lack of capital
to develop new technologies and to adopt on MSEs, technical knowledge gaps, and absence of
communication platforms to facilitate the development of the sector in the region were the major
identified technology transfer gaps that need interventions. In addition to these, Infrastructure
related problems like access to electricity, rode, irrigation main channels, market shads and other
relevant infrastructures greatly influenced the growth of MSEs and TVET colleges’ efforts on
technology transfer and development operations.

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Recommendations

Poly technic colleges’ capacity to develop, innovate and adopt new technologies has to be
rebuilt and the technology transfer department has to strengthen on financial, structural
and human power aspects to be able to respond to technology demands of their
surroundings. Mainly trainers' responsiveness has to be restored by training and
organized follow-ups to be active on innovation and project-based community
development involvements.
The regional TVET bureau has to launch a regional website and improve internet
facilities to maintain better communication with its TVET colleges. The system can also
be used as a database to produce regional manuals, tools, technology recommendations,
best experiences and other resources to disseminate and to make easily accessible by
trainers, students and officials of the colleges.
Regional experience and knowledge on the areas of technology needs, challenges and
creative intervention technics should be organized and shared. Knowledge and skill
transfer and development help colleges to cope up with any staff turnovers.
Maintaining regional partnership, which directs ground level partnership among potential
stockholders, should be promoted. The regional technology-based partnership can solve
major gaps like financial, knowledge, manpower, market, and other gaps. In the
meantime, effective partnership can influence and improve the regional policies and
government actions on the development of major technology infrastructures.
Technology transfer departments’ needs to work on organizing and dissemination
updated machinery and product designs by targeting MSEs and potential innovators, and
delivering skills development trainings that are location specific and integrating technical
and leadership skills should be encouraged.
In addition to the previous trends of case institutions’ motivation programs that have been
used to promote innovations and technology development, there should be other
incentives like awarding and acknowledgment strategies that are helpful for commitment
building. Working by focusing on social responsibility and ownership development, like
giving trainings on social problems and social enterprise ideas which are potentially able
to create self-motivated trainers and trainees that effectively respond towards TVET
goals and community needs.
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