S. Benjamin Prasad

Technology transfer: The approach of a Dutch multinational

Abstract The process of technology transfer has been a major underlying cause of many crucial geopolitical issues. This paper treats the topic of technology transfer from multinational firms to developing countries as a managerial challenge and narrates how the pioneering initiative taken in 1961 by N.V. Philips has met that challenge. The main instrumentality employed by Philips is its Pilot Plant at Utrecht which, by all indications, has served both the multinational and the host nations in the developing world in a positive way for more than two decades.

Applicability of American Management

The Indian Government as well as the business community has realized the importance of advanced management know-how in our economic and industrial efforts. The awareness and actions taken so far are reflected by several factors discussed in Chapter 3.

Relevance of Western Theories

Perhaps the most revolutionary change in the modern civilization started with the so-called Industrial Revolution which got underway in the western world and is now spreading to the “underdeveloped countries” of Asia, Africa, and South America which by any definition still comprise about \({3 \over 4}\) of the world’s population. “Technology” can be regarded as the main outcome of the Industrial Revolution.1 In an anthropological sense “technology” can be construed as a vital aspect of culture. Then of all aspects of culture such as social organization, religion, art, and philosophy, it has been technology from which elements have been most readily diffused from one country to another or from one society to another. This diffusion has been facilitated by at least three factors. The first is the conducive “environment” or set of values (or the scientific or sociological basis); the second is the fact that technological elements are more amenable to objective, comparative evaluations than are the elements from other aspects of culture. Thus in a society which has been exposed to a new tool, technique, or knowhow, people can make reasonably fair evaluations of the advantages of adopting it. Such is not the case, for instance, when a new art style or motif has been introduced in an alien society.

Private Foreign Investment and Economic Development

Like many of the developing countries, India’s economic and industrial development heavily depends on the availability of foreign exchange and advanced technical and managerial knowhow. Foreign aid from the various industrially advanced countries has thus far remained the main source in meeting these needs and fortunately India has received a huge amount of such aid from foreign countries. However, it is clearly realized by now that foreign aid alone is not enough to satisfy India’s needs of foreign exchange and managerial and technical know-how. Particularly since the 1958 foreign exchange crisis, India’s balance of payment position has been rapidly deteriorating. At the present time, her foreign exchange reserves are at the lowest ebb, and they might have slipped through the floor several times if the government had not borrowed some

Investment retreat from Ireland: Anomaly or trend?

200 million from the International Monetary Fund. Indeed, as the Finance Minister, Mr. Sachin Chaudhuri, pointed out in his recent budgetary speech, the shortages of food grains and foreign exchange are the two most important factors hindering India’s economic and industrial development.1 It is therefore imperative that the government do solve these two chronic problems.

Managing Production Systems Abroad: A Note on Organizational Framework

The Republic of Ireland, through its Industrial Development Authority (IDA), has been successfully involved in the process of industrialisation for more than a quarter of a century. A general measure of IDAs performance can be established in terms of the number of direct investment decisions made by foreign firms and the number of jobs created at home. The purpose of this article is to report the findings of a research project which asked the foreign investors about their motives for investing as well as their reasons to divest. This paper deals with the second theme. One general conclusion that can be drawn from survey results and personal interviews held in Ireland during 19841985 is that whereas some foreign firms still see the Irish industrial environment as attractive the same proportion sees it as no longer profitable. This conclusion suggests that it would be useful for Ireland to give urgent and serious attention to this emerging problem.

The New Breed of Managers

The article presents a speech by S. Benjamin Prasad, delivered at a March 1970 meeting of the Western Division of the Academy of Management, in Salt Lake City, Nevada, in which he discusses the topic of industrial production systems.

Organization and Manpower Problems in the Public Sector

“Is the Indian manager becoming professionalized?” This is the question with which this chapter is concerned. Historical data were analyzed in the previous chapter to discuss this question of paramount importance in India’s economic development.

Economic Development and Management Education in India

The problems of efficiency in the economic enterprise organized by the State in the centrally planned economies have aroused new and widespread interest.1 The public sector in India operates in a mixed economy and a democratic society. The pressures for change in this very large sector are evident and becoming conspicuous. Nowhere are tne problems more acute than in the manner of organizing human resources for efficient operations.

Old Style Management

The problem of economic development varies in relation to the stage of economic development in which a country finds itself at a given time. For example, there were countries which had attained a fairly high level of development but which suffered severely during the Second World War and their economies had to be reconstructed. Illustrations of such nations are Germany and Japan. The underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America manifest development problems of a different character, and even among these countries there is considerable variation in the stage of development at which each country has been. Nevertheless there are certain common problems which are similar in nature but different in degree. One of these, which is slowly being recognized, is that of the “managerial input” in the economic development model.