TEchNOLOGy TRaNSFER MODEL - Javna agencija

KNOWLEDGE FOR BUSINESS IN BORDER REGIONS
At first, a decision seems necessary about which technologies are of relevance and of need for the respective company today and
in the future. This decision is based upon comprehensive analyses, which encompass first the technology needs of several current
and planned products and services, and second the assessment of not-yet-deployed or perhaps to-be-developed technologies with
an eye to their function as substitutes or as new applications.
Second, the company has to decide on the type of sourcing of the required technologies. The so-called ‘make-or-buy’ decision can
be understood as the act of making a strategic choice between developing a technology internally (in-house) or acquiring it externally
from a supplier. The latter is also referred to as ‘outsourcing’. In regard to this decision, conducting feasibility studies is highly
recommended (see worksheet 5-1 as an example).
Third, at a given point in time companies are confronted with the question as to which technologies should be reserved for a firm’s
own exclusive use, and which should be made accessible to external parties in a different form or even for direct use. Such a decision
is also referred to as ‘keep-or-sell’.
It should be kept in mind that all these decisions must be made related to the aims of the company and its core competencies as
well as its available resources. In the future, companies will be faced with significantly more ‘buy or sell’ decisions than previously.
In the comprehensive sense such professional buy-and-sell processes can be termed as ‘technology marketing’.
5.8 Technology Marketing
In order to support the buying and selling of technologies, a specific type of marketing is needed which goes beyond traditional
marketing. Thus, technology marketing describes a specific form of marketing concerning technological products, technological processes
and technological know-how. It is characterized by constitutive criteria which considerably differ from the conventional product
marketing.
Figure 17: Various forms of technology marketing (Source: Tschirky et al., 2000)
The above figure illustrates both forms of technology marketing and of traditional marketing. It presupposes that traditional marketing
also formally covers many of the company’s acquisition and turnover-oriented activities. Classical marketing, however, deals
only superficially with acquisition activities and strongly focuses on turnover markets. In contrast, the task of technology marketing
is to explicitly, with equal weight, integrate acquisition and turnover. Considerable synergies may arise between these areas, and
cooperation be established.
Figure 18 clearly represents the basic differences between these two types of marketing.
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