Partnerships for technology transfer: how can investors and communities build renewable energy in Asia?

Technology transfer for climate change mitigation needs to focus on the diffusion of existing technologies as well as the innovation of technologies. • Diffusion requires full involvement of non-state actors, particularly business investors in new and renewable energy technologies and the local communities who adopt technologies. • This paper presents advice about how partnerships between investors and communities can accelerate technology transfer by reducing investors’ costs and making technologies more relevant to local development. Partnerships are based on a combination of creating assurance mechanisms, reducing transaction costs, and building trust and accountability. • Capacity-building and enabling environments for technology transfer therefore have to include building these partnerships between investors and host communities

Transferring intermediate technologies to rural enterprises in developing economies: a conceptual framework

This paper integrates the contributions from different branches of the technology transfer literature to identify enablers driving the transfer of intermediate or appropriate technologies to recipients in rural areas of developing economies. An in-depth analysis of the literature shows that many enablers identified in the literature focus on high technology transfers and are of limited relevance in the context of rural enterprises. Other important enablers in this specific setting are ignored or insufficiently considered. This paper proposes a framework comprising a specific set of enablers that facilitates technology transfer in rural enterprises in developing regional economies

University spin-offs, entrepreneurial environment and start-up policy: the cases of Waterloo and Toronto (Ontario) and Columbus (Ohio)

The version of record [Bathelt, H., & Spigel, B. (2011). University spinoffs, entrepreneurial environment and start-up policy: The cases of Waterloo and Toronto (Ontario) and Columbus (Ohio). International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, 2(2), 202-219.] is available online at: http://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/10.1504/IJKBD.2011.041248Universities can be central to a region’s economic growth and development, especially if they support start-up, spin-off and modernisation processes related to the regional core sectors. While many governments and associations have developed programmes to encourage the establishment of university spin-offs, the policies they craft are hampered by two major problems. The first is a narrow understanding of spin-offs that focuses on firms directly based on university research. This approach misses firms that use university-related knowledge and resources, unsponsored through the university. Second, spin-off promotion policies often ignore the role of a larger regional entrepreneurial culture and supporting institutions. This paper argues that a broader view of spin-offs is required; a view that accounts for a larger array of ventures and that looks beyond the firm or university to the broader set of regional structures and relations. The empirical evidence presented draws from start-up and spin-off experiences at universities in the USA and Canada

Policy options to overcome barriers to industrial energy efficiency in developing countries

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