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ItemEmerging Technologies and Inequalities: Beyond the Technological Transition(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-10-07) Cozzens, Susan E.The innovation systems approach to societal development includes a critique of the common focus on high technologies in the development process. Even in affluent economies, directing resources exclusively to high technologies neglects the broader innovative processes undertaken by doing, using, and interacting. In developing economies, with fewer resources, too strong a focus on high technologies is unlikely to produce as much benefit as a more inclusive concept of innovation. Emerging technologies are defined as those that are new, science-based, and of potentially broad impact (Cozzens et al., forthcoming). They are a particular subset of high technologies, located at what some call the technological frontier. Affluent countries compete for leadership in emerging technologies like bio- and nano-technologies, and some less affluent countries have in the past found significant opportunities in the wide open spaces of the technology emergence process. This paper looks at five examples of emerging technologies from the viewpoint of several developing countries, with particular attention to their distributional consequences. None of the examples represents the kind of dramatic opportunities that get so much attention in the innovation studies literature – there are no Koreas, Taiwans, or Singapores here. Precisely because of this, these cases may be more representative of the dilemmas emerging technologies present for countries that are trying to achieve inclusive growth. The paper presents some of the results from a cross-national, cross-technology study of the distributional effects of emerging technologies. The five technologies studied were: genetically modified (GM) maize, mobile phones, open source software, plant tissue culture, and recombinant insulin. The eight countries included were: Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, Jamaica, Malta, Mozambique, and the United States. Half are high-income and half are low or middle income countries. This paper focuses on the results of the study in the four low and middle income countries. Emerging technologies are a strategic research site for examining the interaction of inequalities between countries and inequalities within countries.2 Conceptually, we defined emerging technologies in this project as new and research-based, with potential broad impact. Operationally in the project, we have studied the actual distributional consequences of selected biotechnologies and information and communication technologies (ICTs). The research aims to 1. describe the dynamics that link emerging technologies to patterns of inequality; 2. identify the roles of public interventions in those dynamics; and 3. develop a framework that policy actors can use prospectively to analyze the distributional valence of a specific new technology in a particular national context. Our central research question is how policy interventions affect distributional outcomes for the same technology under different national conditions.
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ItemWho collaborates internationally in developing countries? The case of Colombia(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-10-07) Ordóñez-Matamoros, Gonzalo ; Cozzens, Susan E. ; García-Luque, MargaritaInternational research collaboration is a growing social phenomenon taking place at a particularly rapid pace in developing countries. Most of the literature on the topic claims that research collaboration is an important source of creativity, which in the right set of conditions may increase scientific productivity, research quality, innovative capacity, science and technology human capital, and help the consolidation of research agendas and the expansion of research areas. However, risks and costs associated with international collaboration are also found in the literature, including the privatization and capture of traditional ‘public’ knowledge, the ‘mercantilization’ of knowledge and human capital as resulting from public-private research partnerships, high opportunity costs, and crowding out effects. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the determinants of international research collaboration in developing countries using Colombia as a case study. In fact, knowing the factors affecting the choice of collaborating internationally will help the design of policies aimed at creating local S&T capabilities through the encouragement of the internationalization of the local S&T community, or at reducing the negative effects derived from that process. The research tests the hypotheses formulated using logit models. It considers different types of collaborative activities and different types of partners while controlling for team characteristics, team leader characteristics, scientific field, characteristics of the home institution and team location. Econometric findings and policy implications are discussed.
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ItemTechnology Diffusion Dynamics: The case of Chile’s Forestry Industry(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-10-07) Catalán, Pablo ; Cozzens, Susan E.Based on Everett Rogers’ diffusion model, the article explores diffusion dynamics in Chile’s Forestry Industry. Technology adoption is defined as depending upon innovation attributes, collaboration, communication channels, research and development (R&D) capacity, and institutional environment. The attributes of innovation are in turn divided into five sub-factors: comparative advantage, compatibility, complexity, observability, and trialability. Our case study analysis is based on 21 interviews with various actors in the Chilean forestry industry and on secondary information sources. Our conclusion is that the attributes of innovation in terms of comparative advantage, observability, and compatibility are technology diffusion drivers, and that the industry needs higher collaboration, better R&D capacity, less bureaucracy, and a more flexible public funding system to achieve a better performance.
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ItemDistributive paths and channels of emerging technologies in developing countries: What can we learn from biotechnology and ICTs in Argentina and Costa Rica?(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-10-07) Bortagaray, Isabel ; Cozzens, Susan E.This paper analyzes the paths of emerging technologies in developing countries, particularly considering its distributive dimension along the chain of functions, from knowledge production, to the technology’s production/provision, its incorporation into the productive system, and to its more generalized access and use. Two contrasting countries, Argentina and Costa Rica, set the context of study of these paths, the different conditions through which they make their way across sectors and actors, their functions and roles, and the type of distributive channels involved. The analysis of the distributive patterns of emerging technologies must include at least two intertwined levels: at the level of knowledge production, diffusion and access, and the second related to technology’s diffusion-commercialization, access and use. The twofold analysis involve a common emphasis on the identification and analysis of who produces/gets what, how and when, and on the channels of distribution that contribute (or not) to the breadth and depth of the technology. More in particularly, it considers those policies, organizations and/or institutions that substantially influence/shape the way in which the technology penetrates society. In some cases these have to do with establishing channels for bridging knowledge production and use, while in others their contribution is towards the expansion of technological access and appropriation. It also looks at the different roles of policies along each phase of the technology. This paper argues that at the level of knowledge production, public research organizations (national and/or international) are fundamental for catalyzing the expansion of the distributive path, in spite of differences and peculiarities of the technologies. Yet at the level of the distribution of the technology, this role is not always embraced by a specific actor or by policies, in which cases distributive paths are interrupted, and pockets of population remain outside from the technology’s path. It directly results from a large research project, RESULTAR2, oriented to study the distributive consequences of emerging technologies in five countries of the Americas (Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica and United States), and concentrated on two sets of emerging technologies: biotechnologies (GM, tissue culture, and recombinant insulin) and ICTs (Open source software and Mobile Phones). Moreover, RESULTAR attempts to: “(1) describe the dynamics that link emerging technologies to patterns of inequality; (2) identify the roles of public interventions in those dynamics; and (3) develop a framework that policy actors can use prospectively to analyze the distributional valence of a specific new technology in a particular national context.”3. This paper takes some distance from the focus on outcomes to concentrate on the paths of these technologies across the population, focusing on the mechanisms and channels through which they are accessed and utilized. In particular it draws on 40 indepth interviews conducted to a wide range of actors, including researchers, policymakers, technology users, NGOs, and productive actors related to the five technologies in the two countries.