CHANGING TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER STRATEGIES IN A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION - AN EXAMINATION OF ITRI

Abstract

With the emergence of global competition, a non-profit organization (NPO) must adapt its strategies of technology transfer to suit the change of global economic environment so as to enhance benefits of technology transfer. The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is the leading non-profit R&D organization in Taiwan. This research studies ITRI's strategies of major technology transfer and then divides these strategies into three stages in accordance with Taiwan's stages of industrial development. This paper aims to measure the strategic changes employed every decade and assesses the impact level of each strategy at each stage. This research applies Fuzzy and AHP theories to survey ITRI's technology transfer strategies over the past three decades and to analyze the future strategy for technology transfer. The authors conclude that a new pattern of technology transfer strategies has served as a means for more balanced innovative capabilities among sectors. Furthermore, the IP business and spin-offs are the most important strategies for future technology transfer when Taiwan evolves toward knowledge economy era. In addition, an open innovation model for future technology transfer is proposed and discussed in this paper.