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This study shows how R&D resources improve firm performance, taking advantage of open innovation activities in SMEs. It focuses on the mediating effect of R&D openness on the relationship between R&D resources and firm performance in SMEs. We employ secondary data of 1,046 SMEs located in South Korea's innovation clusters wherein scientific knowledge and technologies are efficiently created, transferred and utilised. The findings show that R&D resources (technological, human and financial resources) and R&D openness in SMEs positively affect firm performance. On the one hand, only SMEs with more financial resources (R&D investment) achieve better firm performance via a higher degree of external R&D collaboration. Fewer technological resources or more financial resources in SMEs can be a motivation for external collaboration. Differentiated open innovation strategies are required depending on the characteristics of R&D resources in SMEs in order to improve firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry-University Cooperation (IUC) is recognised as an effective model for technological innovation, helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to seek opportunities from technological development and to achieve sustainable competitiveness. The study proposes an improved solution to resolve the 4 W questions commonly faced by SMEs, including identifying cooperative topics, comparing technology competitors, evaluating cooperative universities, and selecting research teams. Firstly, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation model is applied to extract sub-technology topics in a specific technology domain, and the patent clustering is analysed via K-means algorithm. Secondly, competitive and uncompetitive sub-technologies of the enterprise, as well as the geographical distribution of competitors in sub-technologies are analysed. Thirdly, the study proposes a new topic matching index (TMI) to help determine the best cooperative universities. Finally, the cooperation network is visualised to help identify the specific core research teams for each specific technology. The research team conducted an experimental study using real patent data on a 'Blockchain' technology enterprise to verify the proposed solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how technology transfer can influence the performance of small businesses in developing countries like Kenya. The theoretical basis of the study is the technology transfer model, which integrates a consideration of the transfer provider with that of the recipient's capacity. The study's sample comprises 104 enterprises. Correlation and a regression model are used for content analysis. The results show that technology transfers improve small businesses' performance and help drive rural development. The effectiveness of transferred technology has a major impact on small businesses' competitiveness and access to international markets. These findings imply that governments must develop technology transfer strategies for small businesses in order to enhance both their performance and food security. Government policies for technology transfer should incorporate incentives for agricultural technology transfer to boost food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars underline the high relevance of bridging organisations in favouring innovation. Nevertheless, they do not investigate enough how bridging organisations favour technology transfer, particularly with regard to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To fill this research gap, this paper reviews the studies on the technology transfer activities a bridging organisation could perform. Then, the main activities carried out by intermediators are empirically investigated to identify the main intervention processes and activities. The further analysis of these activities identifies three SMEs' abilities an intermediator may promote (i.e. networking, integration and absorptive capacity). This paper offers practical and theoretical contributions. First, it supports the definition of the intermediators' intervention plans with a whole description of the three potential levels of intervention. Second, it synthetises the relationship between technology management, bridging organisations and SMEs in three propositions. Finally, it highlights the need for policy makers' intervention supporting technology transfer offices and local institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many SMEs homed in newly industrialised countries are successful international players despite limited technological infrastructure and R&D resources. This study bridges a gap in the extant literature by examining the relationships between characteristics of partnership relationships, knowledge sharing and the effectiveness of technology transfer in partnerships between SMEs in developing countries and firms from developed countries. By studying data from Turkish SMEs and using partial least squares structural equation modelling, we find that explicit knowledge sharing forms the basis of technology transfer. Moreover, our findings demonstrate that explicit knowledge sharing is strongly contingent upon formalised technical support while trust and technical support seemed to be important antecedents of tacit knowledge sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research technology organisations or RTOs have attracted academic interest in the last decade due to their role as technology transfer agents and R&D collaborative leaders for firms and especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Although their role within the diversity of specialised structures in generating R&D for industry in National Innovation Systems is recognised, there are scarce publications in relation to their strategies, performance or characteristic, as leaders of R&D collaboration with SMEs. The aim of this work is to identify the role, barriers and facilitators for RTOs performance as well as to develop a contingency relationship between industry environment, strategy, organisational structure and other factors for successful technology transfer from technology organisations to SMEs. This research is based on a field study conducted on 14 technology organisations based in the Valencia region, working with various industry sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Central to the EU regional development strategy is the idea that cohesion funding will allow lagging regions to develop their capacity so that they can develop their R&D to levels that can be funded by Framework. Using a European funded (ERDF) NPP project – MicrE as a case study, this paper considers how, through a transnational programme, this might work in practice. MicrE's main aim was to provide a service to develop and promote innovative small-scale renewable energy solutions for rural small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the northern periphery of Europe. Concentrating on Northern Ireland, this paper provides a micro and macro-level assessment of the key challenges associated with adopting renewable energy technologies by SMEs; and the future development of public policy aimed at developing SME capacity by encouraging knowledge transfer and supporting their R&D efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]