Key actors in the process of innovation and technology transfer in the context of economic transition

Communist ideology placed great emphasis on science and technology, but in a way that reflected little understanding of the reality of technological processes. In the transition economies, the institutional structure remains distorted in a way that is inimical to effective technology transfer. If the dynamic elements in these economies (the foreign-owned firms, the franchises, the high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises) could get together in the way they do in the West, the vicious circle of weak innovation/technology transfer would be broken. Helping government to raise its game is what is most likely to have a substantial exogenous impact on the process of innovation and technology transfer over the medium term. Radical reorganisation, even abolition, of existing science and technology ministries may be a necessary first step. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.