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Precision agriculture (PA) technology has proven effective in optimizing yield with minimum inputs and in reducing environmental pollution. In this paper, we aim to investigate factors influencing PA adoption in developing countries at both the farmer (individual) and farm (organizational) levels. Findings from 59 high-ranking journal articles were reviewed to determine factors that facilitate or hinder PA adoption: 63% of studies reported factors at the farm level and 37% at the individual level. At the individual level, factors promoting PA adoption included the technology's relative advantages, observability, trialability, farmer experience in using technology, innovativeness, risk tolerance, education, and knowledge, whereas farmer age and technology complexity hindered PA adoption. Factors promoting PA adoption at the farm level included farm size, resource availability, perceived need for technology characteristics, technology compatibility, social influence, competitive pressure, and government support. PA adoption should, thus, include both levels; hence, a multi-level set of adoption determinants is presented in this study. The findings not only broaden the research agenda for future PA adoption studies that address gaps in the existing literature but also provide a holistic way for entrepreneurial technology developers and policymakers to understand factors that affect PA adoption. The study, thus, paves the way for further investigations to address the causes of slow progress in adoption of innovative technologies, such as PA, especially in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of globalization in the creation and dissemination of technology across firms operating in 30 emerging and developing economies. Firm-level data from four rounds of Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Surveys from 2002 to 2014 is pooled to assess whether international exposure translates into greater propensity for firms to innovate. The viability of different channels of international technology transmission, i.e. exporting and importing activities, foreign licensing agreements and foreign direct investment are studied to analyze whether they indeed succeed in delivering the push to the firms operating in developing countries to innovate and as a result push them closer to the world's technology frontier. The empirical results endorse the view that exporting and importing activities and foreign licensing agreements are important channels for technology transfer. This study also acknowledges country, sector and firm specific characteristics and their differential capacity to benefit from foreign exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Seattle-based PATH is one of the world’s largest not-for profit organisations focused on improving health in low-income countries. This article argues the history of this understudied organisation is critical to understanding how collective action focused on facilitating developing countries’ access to essential health technologies is structured. Since its establishment almost 40 years ago, the organisation has been a catalyst for multidisciplinary public–private collaboration that has produced affordable, culturally appropriate health technologies. From its origins in reproductive health, enabling contraceptive technology transfers and advising on regulatory standards, to its more recent managerial roles in the development of inexpensive vaccines produced in developing countries, PATH has repeatedly illustrated how public–private collaboration in product research and development can increase poor populations’ access to essential health technologies. This in turn has provided substance to the contested narrative that engaging business is critical to reducing global health disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Industrial clusters evolve dynamically as the external environment changes. To better understand the nature of cluster evolution, which has nurtured economic growth in early 2000s, strategy and organisation scholars have attempted to unpack contributors to cluster evolution from the perspective of the ‘environmental uncertainty’ and ‘resource abundance’ effects. The paper adopts and extend an earlier extant model through empirical testing of the thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) industrial cluster in Taiwan, a developing country. This study modifies the extant network model by adding a diffusion of technological innovation index to cluster evolving. Using the extended case study, the study examines the dynamic evolutionary process in the TFT-LCD industrial cluster. It was found that the evolution of the TFT-LCD industrial cluster resembles the theoretical argument in some respects. The characteristics of network change are modified according to these results. Implication for policymakers and decision-makers of developing countries are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sectoral approaches have been gaining currency in the international climate debate as a possible remedy to the shortfalls of the Kyoto Protocol. Proponents argue that a sector-based architecture can more easily invite the participation of developing countries, address competitiveness issues, and enable immediate emissions reductions. However, given the numerous proposals, much confusion remains as to what sectoral approaches actually are. This article provides a simple, yet comprehensive, taxonomy of the various proposals for sectoral approaches. Based on the dual criteria of content and actors, three such types are identified and described: government targets and timetables; industry targets and timetables; and transnational technology cooperation. For each of these types, existing proposals and ongoing initiatives are discussed. In a second step, the article analyses the political landscape in which sectoral approaches are being debated, identifying the interests of their key advocates as well as the concerns of their critics. The Japanese government and energy-intensive manufacturing industries represent the main proponents of sectoral approaches to address the problems of carbon leakage and economic competitiveness. Developing countries, on the other hand, are wary of attempts to impose emissions reduction targets on their economies through sectoral target-setting. They, therefore, interpret sectoral approaches as sector-based forms of technology cooperation and technology transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines international technology transfers using firm-level data across 43 developing countries. Its findings show that exporting and importing activities are important channels for the transfer of technology. Majority foreign-owned firms are less likely to engage in technological innovations than minority foreign-owned firms or domestic firms. The authors interpret this finding as evidence that the technology transferred from multinational parents to majority-owned subsidiaries is more mature than that transferred to minority-owned subsidiaries. Their findings also suggest that foreign-owned subsidiaries rely mostly on the direct transfer of technology from their parents and that firms that import intermediate inputs are more likely to acquire new technology from their machinery suppliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the limited number of studies on how agglomeration and spatial proximity contribute to the establishment of technology linkages between foreign transnational corporations and suppliers in developing countries. We use firm-level data, collected at the bus and truck plants of AB Volvo in Brazil, China, India, and Mexico, to analyze the extent to which "local" suppliers, located near the assembly plants, are in a better position than are other suppliers in the host country to take advantage of the technological assistance that Volvo provides as part of its ongoing business relations. Our analysis shows that many suppliers are provided with technological assistance, related both to "embodied" and "disembodied" forms of technology. Our main finding is that the higher transaction and communication costs that Volvo has to bear when interacting with nonlocal suppliers, compared to local suppliers, only marginally seem to affect the extent to which the suppliers are provided with technological assistance. However, geographic proximity is more crucial for opportunities for the suppliers to absorb external technology. Especially in China and India, but also in Brazil, local suppliers take advantage of their interaction with Volvo to a larger extent than do other suppliers. For many of the smaller domestic companies that make up the dominant share of Volvo's local suppliers, low transaction and communication costs and the opportunity to interact regularly with Volvo are an important determinant of the successful absorption of external technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides a partial test case of the argument that developing countries might be able to `leapfrog' earlier technological paradigms and catch up in the field of electronics using evidence from Singapore's electronics industry. Role of government; Contribution of electronics to manufacturing; Corporate learning in Singapore; Technology accumulation; Implications of evidence from Singapore.