Managing International Technology Transfer Risk: Alternatives and Complements to Ownership Structure

摘要

1. This exploratory study builds propositions for protecting technology when exploiting it through foreign production. It uses transaction cost as a preliminary basis to explore alternative methods to predict and assess firms' methods of managing international technology transfer risks. It adds theoretical explanations based on the experiences of nine US high-tech companies' entries and operations in Asia. 2. We propose that companies rely not only on ownership structure (e.g. entry mode selection) to protect against technology misappropriation, but also on making transferred technologies more tacit and headquarters-dependent. Finally, viewing technology transfer from the transferee's perspective, we develop a theoretical framework on managing international technology transfer risks.