Technology Transfer and Competitive Advantage: The Managers’ Perspective

Abstract

Achieving and sustaining competitive advantages is becoming extraordinarily difficult as strategic intangible resources are hidden from public consumption and information asymmetry rules a turbulence business environment. The how of competitive advantage debate revolves around different constructs but technology transfer (technology infrastructure, innovation, and adoption) constitutes the focus of this work. The paper argued from technology transfer proxies to explain firms’ competitive advantage through the knowledge lenses of managers. Cross- sectional survey research design was adopted, the unit of analysis was randomly selected and data were collected from 90 managers of telecommunication companies in Lagos State, Nigeria through a validated questionnaire whose reliability was established. The study provided empirical evidences that a relationship exist between technology transfer dimensions (technology adoption, technology infrastructure, and technology innovation) and competitive advantage (r =0.582, p<0.05; 0.862, p<0.05; 0.684, p<0.05) and that these further affected significantly firms’ competitive advantage (F_stat.19.16, p-value 0.000) among the surveyed companies. The recommendation focused on technology transfer in the form of adoption, infrastructure and innovation within a business ecosystem to promote competitive advantage.

Keywords: Technology transfer, competitive advantage, and Nigerian telecommunication industry.

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-28-08

Publication date:October 31^st 2019