Judging the international transfer of technology

International transfer of technology is a widely discussed area in the scientific literature. Although many different factors are discussed in the literature that affect the transfer of technology, it is not clear how to judge the performance of companies involved in international technology transfer. In this paper indications are given on how the performance of companies involved in the international transfer of technology can be judged. This is done by first explaining what is meant by international transfer of technology in the context of this paper. Based on this, a process model is developed for the transfer of technology. Several possible viewpoints of judging are given related to the efficiency and effectiveness of the technology transfer. However, judging the efficiency and effectiveness depends on the developed process model and is cumbersome and subjective. Therefore, the application of an alternative instrument, the learning curve is introduced. The learning curve offers great potential to judge the transfer of technology because it is an aggregate measurement of the production performance. Companies involved in a technology transfer have to be aware though that the learning rate can not simply be copied. The case studies lead to the conclusion that for the transfer process a constant curve is assumed but that in practice the learning rate at the Destination Company is lower than at the Source Company.