Andre J. Buys

R&D as a source of innovation in South Africa

In investigating the link between R&D and innovation, data was used from the South African Innovation Survey of 2001 (SAIS2001). The SAIS2001 results showed that South African enterprises had a relatively high level of innovation with a low level of R&D related innovation costs. A cross tabulation was performed and a statistically significant link between innovation and R&D was found. The group of firms who innovated had a higher tendency to conduct R&D. Universities or Public Research Organisations (PROs) - the dasiaconventionalpsila sources of R&D - was rated mostly as unimportant external sources of innovation. This is ascribed to the fact that most R&D that is conducted internally is at the experimental development level and requires little basic or applied research. Sectors also differ in their use of R&D as a source of innovation. Based on the above mentioned data, a positive correlation between R&D and innovation was found in the SAIS2001 data. However, the majority of R&D reported in SAIS2001 is in-house R&D. In contrast, national R&D programmes focus on science intensive industries where R&D (basic and applied) is an important source of innovation. These can be easily quantified by the annual R&D surveys. However, at the national industry level, the link between R&D and innovation requires more frequent quantification as an input into STI policy. It is therefore recommended that in a developing country such as South Africa, R&D should be closer aligned to enable innovation at industry level.

A review of technology transfer mechanisms

This paper gives a review of the theory of technology transfer mechanisms. It is intended as an overview for practitioners. Technology transfer is defined and the technology transfer process discussed. Various technology transfer management tools are presented, such as technology reviews, technology space maps, and technology balance sheets. It concludes with the application of the theory in the form of a new proposed model for technology transfer. The aim of the model is to introduce the basic activities involved in a technology transfer project. The model can be used in a formal technology transfer strategy from the early planning stages, through the measuring of progress and output of the project to the post review of the project. Hierdie artikel gee ?n oorsig van tegnologie-oordrag meganismes. Dit word aangebied as ?n oorsig vir praktisyns. Tegnologie-oordrag word gedefineer en die tegnologie-oordrag proses word in bespreek. Verskeie tegnologie-oordrag bestuursgereedskap, soos tegnologie oorsigte, tegnologie ruimtekaarte en tegnologie balansstate word voorgehou. Ter afsluiting word die toepassing van die teorie in die vorm van ?n nuwe voorgestelde model vir tegnologie-oordrag voorgehou. Die doel van die model is om die basiese aktiwiteite waaruit ?n tegnologie-oordrag projek bestaan duidelik na vore te bring. Die model is geskik vir gebruik as deel van ?n formele tegnologie-oordrag strategie vanaf die vroee beplanningsfases, deur die meting van vordering en die uitset van die projek, tot die nabetragting na afloop van die projek.

The management of maintenance technology transfer in the South African aviation industry

This paper reports on research into the technology transfer activities of South African aviation industry companies. The technologies surrounding the maintenance function were investigated, since this is one of the main functions in this industry. The investigation shows the extent to which technology is transferred from external sources to the individual companies. The investigation was also extended to cover internal technology transfer. The result of the investigation indicated the sources of technology, the mechanisms used for transfer, and the barriers to the transfer process both for internal and external technology transfer. The paper concludes with a look into what the future may hold for maintenance in the aviation industry given the current trend in technology development. OPSOMMING Hierdie artikel beskryf navorsing oor die tegnologie-oordrag aktiwiteite van Suid-Afrikaanse lugvaartnywerheidmaatskappye. Die tegnologiee wat verband hou met die onderhoudfunksie is ondersoek, aangesien dit een van die hooffunksies in die nywerheidsektor is. Die ondersoek toon die omvang van tegnologie-oordrag van eksterne bronne na individuele maatskappye. Die ondersoek is uitgebrei om ook interne tegnologie-oordrag in te sluit. Die resultaat van die ondersoek het die bronne van tegnologie, die oordrag-meganismes en die versperrings tot interne en eksterne oordrag, geidentifiseer. Die artikel sluit af met ‘n toekomsblik vir instandhouding vir die lugvaartnywerheid in die lig van huidige neigings in tegnologiese ontwikkeling.

INTEROPERABILITY AND STANDARDISATION IN THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

The political changes in South Africa have extended its international obligations by actively involving it in the social wellbeing of troubled African states. Under the auspices of the United Nations, this role is manifested in peacekeeping operations and other standard international practices. The ability of African allied forces to train, exercise, and operate efficiently, effectively, and economically together depends on the interoperability of their operational procedures, doctrine, administration, materiel and technology. This implies that all parties must have the same interpretation of ‘interoperability’. In this study, a conceptual model that explains interoperability and standardisation in terms of a systems hierarchy and the systems engineering process is developed. The study also explores the level of understanding of interoperability in the South African Department of Defence in terms of the levels of standardisation and its relationship to the concepts of systems, systems hierarchy, and systems engineering. OPSOMMING Die politieke veranderinge in Suid-Afrika het daartoe aanleiding gegee dat verdere internasionale verpligtinge die land opgele is. Suid-Afrika, in samewerking met mede-Afrika lande en onder toesig van die Verenigde Nasies, moet deur middel van vredesoperasies by onstabiele Afrika lande betrokke raak. Die vermoe om gesamentlik aan vredesopleiding, vredesoefeninge en vredesoperasies op ‘n effektiewe, doeltreffende en ekonomiese wyse deel te neem, vereis dat daar versoenbaarheid tussen onderlinge operasionele prosedures, doktrine, administrasie, materieel en tegnologie is. Dit beteken dat alle partye eens omtrent die begrip ‘versoenbaarheid’ moet wees. In hierdie studie is ‘n konseptuele model wat versoenbaarheid en standaardisasie verduidelik in terme van die stelselhierargie en die stelselingenieursweseproses ontwikkel. Hierdie studie het ook die vlak van begrip en verstaan van versoenbaarheid in die Suid-Afrikaanse Departement van Verdediging in terme van die vlakke van standaardisasie en die verhouding tot die konsepte van stelsels, stelselhierargie en stelselingenieurswese ondersoek.

Best practices in new product development : the Zyray Wireless case study

Successful high-tech start-up companies are rare. This case study investigates the New Product Development (NPD) process of Zyray Wireless, a very successful startup 3G technology company that originated in South Africa but relocated to California in the USA. The research looked into the differences between generally accepted NPD best practices and those implemented by this start-up company. Zyray Wireless scored above the industry average in the following categories: customer involvement, project selection, product strategy, technological leadership, and product goal. The best practices for metrics, human resource development, documentation, and change control implemented by Zyray Wireless scored at or below the industry average. The best practice results showed that this very successful start-up company focused more on strategy and engineering and less on process control than average. OPSOMMING Suksesvolle nuwe hoe-tegnologie maatskappye is skaars. Hierdie gevallestudie het die Nuwe Produk Ontwikkelingproses (NPO) ondersoek van Zyray Wireless, ʼn baie suksesvolle nuwe maatskappy wat in Suid-Afrika ontstaan het maar na Kalifornie in die VSA verskuif is. Die navorsing het na die verskille gekyk tussen algemeen aanvaarde NPO beste praktyke en die wat deur hierdie maatskappy geimplementeer is. Zyray Wireless het bo die industriegemiddelde gepresteer in die volgende kategoriee: klientbetrokkenheid, projekkeuse, produkstrategie, tegnologiese leierskap, en produkdoelwitte. Die beste praktyke vir maatstawwe, menslike hulpbronontwikkeling, dokumentasie, en veranderingsbeheer wat deur Zyray Wireless geimplementeer is, het onder die industriegemiddeldes gepresteer. Die beste praktykresultate het getoon dat hierdie baie suksesvolle nuwe maatskappy meer gefokus het op strategie en ingenieurswese en minder op prosesbeheer as die gemiddelde.

Innovative Behaviour of the South African Defence Related Industries

This paper presents a comparative analysis between the innovative behaviours of the defence related industries and other industrial sectors in South Africa. Defence industries are often viewed as constituting the most innovative sector of the manufacturing industry of a country. This industrial sector usually scores high on R&D effort, but the research question is whether this translates into a correspondingly high output of new or improved products and services. This study is based on a survey of companies in the defence related industries and the findings are compared with those of the most recent National Innovation Survey of manufacturing and service industries in South Africa. Some of the variables that were investigated are R&D effort, innovation expenditure, innovated products and services; export performance, innovation partners and information sources for innovation. The study highlights the main differences and similarities between the innovative behaviours of the defence related industries and other industries

The Ambivalence of Technology Transfer through Foreign Direct Investments

Foreign direct investments (FBI) have been touted as the ideal means through which nations can develop and improve their technological capabilities in order to increase their global competitiveness. It is a known fact that parent companies of FDIs are among the worlds most important creators of knowledge and technology. However, it is debatable if FDIs are the right route to technological capability catching-up for developing countries. This paper attempts at formulating a model that depicts technology transfer (TT) by FDI in the electronics sector in South Africa and make appropriate and enabling policy recommendations for optimal TT. The study sample comprises all FDIs in the electronics sector in the country, albeit more than 80% are based in the Gauteng province. Notwithstanding the fact that technological development of countries such as China could be related to the massive inflow of FDI among many other factors, the academic literature reports that some countries have been negatively impacted by FDI. This study investigates this phenomenon and goes a step further by looking at the social networks involved in the TT process

Industrialisation guidelines methodology

The industrialisation of any new technical system requires the establishment of the required industrial infrastructure and supplier base for the system. This paper describes a methodology for the determination of industrialisation guidelines for such programmes. The methodology considers three types of considerations. They are: (1) strategic and operational requirements, (2) market considerations, and (3) current industrial capabilities. These are evaluated and the scores are combined to calculate the recommended industrialisation guidelines. There are four possible outcomes or guidelines that this methodology produces. They are for: (1) local procurement, (2) overseas procurement, (3) partnership procurement, or (4) competitive procurement. The merits of the methodology are that it is systematic and explicit. Its weakness is that it oversimplifies the problem and can therefore only be considered as a guideline or recommendation. Two examples of the application of this methodology are given. These are for the armaments industry and the Pebble Bed Modular Nuclear Reactor project.

ISSUES FACING THE SOUTH AFRICAN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM IN THE NEXT 20 YEARS

There is some concern about the future ability of South Africa’s Research and Development (R&D) system to produce R&D output. This paper documents a Delphi study that was conducted in order to gain insight into the opinion of experts regarding the most pressing issues facing the South African R&D system in the next 20 years. Two main themes emerge from the study. First, experts foresee poor prospects for the retention and rejuvenation of researchers in the system. The second theme is the poor prospects for sufficient funding for R&D in the next 20 years.In general, there was a high level of agreement that the issues were critical. The exception was the respondents’ opinion on the negative effect current Black Economic Empowerment policies might have on quality and R&D capacity in the private sector. OPSOMMING Daar bestaan ’n mate van kommer oor die toekomstige vermoe van Suid-Afrika se Navorsing en Ontwikkeling(N&O)-stelsel om N&O-uitsette te lewer. In hierdie verslag word ’n Delphistudie gedokumenteer wat uitgevoer is om kenners se opinies in te win rakende die mees dringende sake wat die Suid-Afrikaanse N&O-stelsel in die volgende 20 jaar in die gesig staar. Twee temas kom na vore in die navorsing. In die eerste plek, voorsien kenners swak vooruitsigte vir die behoud en vernuwing van personeel van die stelsel. In die tweede plek, word swak vooruitsigte in terme van voldoende befondsing vir N&O oor die volgende 20 jaar voorsien. Oor die algemeen is ’n hoe mate van samestemming ten opsigte van die kritikaliteit van die aangeleenthede gevind. Die uitsondering was die respondente se opinie van die negatiewe effek wat huidige Swart Ekonomiese Bemagtigingsbeleid mag he op die kwaliteit en vermoens van N&O in die privaatsektor.

TECHNOLOGICAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN EMERGING SOCIETIES: DOES HERITAGE REALLY MATTER?

A fundamental topic for researchers in entrepreneurship in recent times has been the question about the extent to which heritage factors such as birth order, family interaction, social class, economic circumstances, and society’s views influence entrepreneurial behaviour. The present body of knowledge was mainly derived from studies conducted on single dominant culture groups in the developed world. While there is strong evidence in the literature to suggest that heritage plays a role in the development of the technological entrepreneur – either through environmental influences or genetic inheritance – the question remains: how strong in fact is this heritage influence in societies that are different from those in the previous studies? Research conducted by the University of Pretoria on technological entrepreneurs in the province of KwaZulu-Natal not only confirms certain existing models, but also provides new insight into the influences of heritage in a multi-cultural society and economically emerging region. OPSOMMING ’n Fundamentele onderwerp vir navorsers in ondernemerskap is tans die vraag in watter mate herkomsfaktore soos geboortevolgorde, familieinteraksie, sosiale klas, ekonomiese omstandighede, en die sieninge van die samelewing ondernemerskapsgedrag beinvloed. Die huidige stand van kennis was hoofsaaklik afgelei uit studies van enkel dominante kultuurgroepe in die ontwikkelde wereld. Terwyl daar sterk bewyse in die literatuur is wat suggereer dat herkoms ’n belangrike rol in die ontwikkeling van tegnologiese ondernemers speel, hetsy deur omgewingsinvloede of genetiese erfenis, bly die vraag steeds: hoe sterk is die herkomsinvloed werklik in samelewings wat verskil van die in vorige studies? Navorsing is by die Universiteit van Pretoria gedoen oor tegnologiese ondernemers in die Kwa-Zoeloe-Natal provinsie wat nie net sekere bestaande modelle bevestig nie, maar ook nuwe insigte bring van herkomsinvloede in ’n multi-kulturele samelewing en ekonomies ontwikkelende gebied.