The importance of international technology diffusion (ITD) for economic development can hardly be overstated. Both the acquisition of technology and its diffusion foster productivity growth. Developing countries have long sought to use both national policies and international agreements to stimulate ITD. The 'correct' policy intervention, if any, depends critically upon the channels through which technology diffuses internationally and the quantitative effects of the various diffusion processes on efficiency and productivity growth. Neither is well understood. New technologies may be embodied in goods and transferred through imports of new varieties of differentiated products or capital goods and equipment, they may be obtained through exposure to foreign buyers or foreign investors or they may be acquired through arms-length trade in intellectual property, e.g., licensing contracts. 'Global Integration and Technology Transfer' uses cross-country and firm level panel data sets to analyze how specific activities exporting, importing, FDI, joint ventures impact on productivity performance.

The impact of globalization on the world's developing economies is not conclusive: studies show conflicting conclusions to the same problems in the context of globalization in developing countries. It is this analytical inconclusiveness that is at the heart of this collection, which makes a fresh attempt to study the real impact of globalization.

Provides a comprehensive review of the issues related to the impact of FDI on development as well as to the policies needed to maximise the benefits.

The spillover effect of multinational companies has, historically, been subject to much debate. The assumption that the host country can be expected to enjoy spillovers – improvements in the balance of payments, in the influx of foreign currency and in other sectors of the economy not directly affected by the multinational – has not necessarily been corroborated in practice. First published in 1989, this book addresses this debate, and the very different conclusions that can be drawn about spillovers. Reporting on significant research on Latin America and drawing comparisons with findings elsewhere, Foreign Investment and Spillovers provides students and researchers with a truly international perspective.

Abstract: May 2000 - How much a developing country can take advantage of technology transfer from foreign direct investment depends partly on how well educated and well trained its workforce is, how much it is willing to invest in research and development, and how much protection it offers for intellectual property rights. Saggi surveys the literature on trade and foreign direct investment - especially wholly owned subsidiaries of multinational firms and international joint ventures - as channels for technology transfer. He also discusses licensing and other arm's-length channels of technology transfer. He concludes: How trade encourages growth depends on whether knowledge spillover is national or international. Spillover is more likely to be national for developing countries than for industrial countries; Local policy often makes pure foreign direct investment infeasible, so foreign firms choose licensing or joint ventures. The jury is still out on whether licensing or joint ventures lead to more learning by local firms; Policies designed to attract foreign direct investment are proliferating. Several plant-level studies have failed to find positive spillover from foreign direct investment to firms competing directly with subsidiaries of multinationals. (However, these studies treat foreign direct investment as exogenous and assume spillover to be horizontal - when it may be vertical.) All such studies do find the subsidiaries of multinationals to be more productive than domestic firms, so foreign direct investment does result in host countries using resources more effectively; Absorptive capacity in the host country is essential for getting significant benefits from foreign direct investment. Without adequate human capital or investments in research and development, spillover fails to materialize; A country's policy on protection of intellectual property rights affects the type of industry it attracts. Firms for which such rights are crucial (such as pharmaceutical firms) are unlikely to invest directly in countries where such protections are weak, or will not invest in manufacturing and research and development activities. Policy on intellectual property rights also influences whether technology transfer comes through licensing, joint ventures, or the establishment of wholly owned subsidiaries. This paper - a product of Trade, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study microfoundations of international technology diffusion. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Microfoundations of International Technology Diffusion. The author may be contacted at [email protected].

This book presents endeavors to join synergies in order to create added value for society, using the latest scientific knowledge to boost technology transfer from academia to industry. It potentiates the foundations for the creation of knowledge- and entrepreneurial cooperation networks involving engineering, innovation, and entrepreneurship stakeholders. The Regional HELIX 2018 conference was organized at the University of Minho’s School of Engineering by the MEtRICs and Algoritmi Research Centers, and took place in Guimarães, Portugal, from June 27th to 29th, 2018. After a rigorous peer-review process, 160 were accepted for publication, covering a wide range of topics, including Control, Automation and Robotics; Mechatronics Design, Medical Devices and Wellbeing; Cyber-Physical Systems, IoT and Industry 4.0; Innovations in Industrial Context and Advanced Manufacturing; New Trends in Mechanical Systems Development; Advanced Materials and Innovative Applications; Waste to Energy and Sustainable Environment; Operational Research and Industrial Mathematics; Innovation and Collaborative Arrangements; Entrepreneurship and Internationalization; and Oriented Education for Innovation, Engineering and/or Entrepreneurship.