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Editorial
Mark Dodgson
Professor; Director, Technology and Innovation Management Centre, University of Queensland Business School, St Lucia QLD
Article Text
Intercultural management and communication styles, as well as the cultural, belief and other assumptions that underpin them, are topical issues in all areas of management. R&D and technology transfer are, like many activities, becoming increasingly global enterprises. A better understanding of how business is done in other cultures can aid collaborative research activities and establishment of joint ventures. Intercultural technology transfer is facilitated when we know what the barriers are to adoption by target markets in other countries. r&D Enterprise – Asia Pacific aims to promote some very useful perspectives on the subject.
Maris Martinsons of the City University of Hong Kong and Daimon Drummond of Hong Kong University provide a comprehensive comparative analysis on how business process re-engineering is understood, and applied, in Japan, China and the United States. A report abstracted in our Best Practice, Reviews and Recommended readings section describes the obstacles to establishing international joint ventures, and how these obstacles may be overcome.
Yong Te Park from Seoul National University provides interesting insights into how R&D is being restructured in Korea's private sector. He addresses the potential implications of a reduced investment in longer-term research and makes some suggestions about how countries responding to economic crisis may reduce negative impacts.
As usual, our Technology Transfer section provides a number of tactical articles useful to professionals with commercialization responsibilities in research laboratories, technology-based companies and decision-makers in universities and government-based agencies. This issue has a focus on cultural change. Garett Upstill writes about how pubic sector research agencies may promote the development of commercial skills in staff; similarly, Louis Tornatzky describes some successful techniques used to promote a commercial culture in universities. Don Creswell and David Matheson describe the principles that help create 'smart organizations', distilled from their recent best-selling book published by Harvard University Press.
Globalization is also evident in the increased number of international events focusing on research commercialization and technology transfer, as reflected in our expaned calendar of events.
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