Other reports in this collection 1.3 Stakeholders, pathways and stages Technology transfer results from actions taken by various stakeholders. Key stakeholders include developers, owners, suppliers, buyers, recipients and users of technology such as private firms, state enterprises, and individual consumers, financiers and donors, governments, international institutions, NGOs and community groups. Some technology is transferred directly between government agencies or wholly within vertically integrated firms, but increasingly technology flows depend also on the co-ordination of multiple organisations such as networks of information service providers, business consultants and financial firms. Although stakeholders play different roles there is a need for partnerships among stakeholders to create successful transfers.
Governments can facilitate such partnerships.
The rate of technology transfer is affected both by motivations that induce more rapid adoption of new techniques and by barriers that impede such transfers. The theme of technology transfer is highly interdisciplinary and has been approached from a variety of perspectives, including business, law, finance, microeconomics, international trade, international political economy, environment, geography, anthropology, education, communication, and labour studies. Although there are numerous frameworks and models put forth to cover different aspects of technology transfer, there are no corresponding overarching theories. However, the literature reveals a large number of pathways through which stakeholders can interact to transfer technologies. They vary depending on sectors, country circumstances and type of technology.