Domestic Technology Transfer and Competitiveness: An Empirical Assessment of Roles of University and Governmental R&D Laboratories

Domestic technology transfer has become a much discussed issue lately because it is one of the central elements in the debate on United States competitiveness.' The sentiment which is being echoed in Congress, the Executive Office of the President, and private industry executive suites is that all too often U.S. know-how has been transferred to foreign nations only to return to the United States in the form of commercially available products. 2 Government officials have jumped vigorously into the fray. Speaking at Denver's recent Presidential Plenary Session, William R. Graham, Director of the federal Office of Science and Technology Policy and science adviser to Ronald Reagan, urged cooperative government, university, and industry research and development (R&D) efforts as the key to continued U.S. competitiveness. Specifically, Graham argued that the more than 700 governmental labs (which are funded in large part by the federal government) need to provide commercial services to industry to keep the United States competitive.3 Industry, albeit still believing in competition as the base of a healthy economic system, is not opposed to cooperative efforts to enliven technology transfer activities. Decision makers from all sectors are accepting the notion that the key decisions about technology are made not only in the marketplace but also by political institutions.4 Indeed, the melding of market and political influences on technology development is that the two are not easily sorted.5 Enacting policies that encourage technology transfer is complicated by the mix of labs and missions contained within the United States's R&D system. Missions and goals vary both between labs and within labs. Technology transfer must often compete with other equally important but conflicting missions (for example, basic research) and goals (performing the research most likely to assure adequate funding and financial stability for the laboratory).6 Generic policies enacted without consideration of the differences between and within laboratories may unwittingly sabotage not only the goal of encouraging technology transfer but other valuable missions and goals.