Technology Transfer Management in the Steel Industry: Transfer Speed, Recognition Lag and Learning Lag

The history of the steel industry reflects the history of technology transfer. The steel industry is a capital-intensive industry in which manufacturing equipment plays a central role in influencing productivity. The extant literature on technology transfer in capital-intensive industries, including the steel industry, suggests that since production technology and know-how are already embodied in capital equipment, developing countries that import equipment can produce products efficiently with economies of scale. This study insists that the ‘economic backwardness’ of latecomers in the steel industry is limited for two reasons. First, to produce high-grade steel products, interprocess coordination and interorganizational coordination are crucial. Second, since companies that introduce technologies lack knowledge and experience regarding new technologies, their learning process and the effectiveness of technological application are variable. This study explains how companies that introduce complex technologies learn their new technologies in the process of introduction, assess their possible biases and determine the time required for learning and relearning. From the standpoint of the introducing company, this study defines ‘technology recognition,’ ‘recognition lag’ and ‘learning lag.’