Industrial Firm Technology Transfer: The role of marketing

Abstract

Reliance on marketing concepts and frameworks that are out of step with practice in a new economy environment presents a particular problem for industrial marketers intent on extracting revenue from firm technology transfer effort, and is a challenge for marketing scholars seeking to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Using an interpretive methodology and the case study method, the study addresses the question what are the roles that marketing plays in industrial firm technology transfer effort by comparing and contrasting concepts and themes occurring in marketing and technology management theory with empirical data collected from four large scale industrial firms owned by the New Zealand Government. Interpretive analysis of marketing phenomena within and across the Case firms show that meta-patterns exist across marketing theory and the empirical data, and are also reflected in marketing practice. These meta-patterns reveal a role for marketing in firm technology transfer through deployment of resources that promote inter-firm and intra-firm relationships, collaboration, and cooperation, and the development of firm technological knowledge. The analysis facilitated development of a unique conceptual framework for industrial marketing that accommodates the meta-patterns identified in the study. The conceptual framework is significant because, in addition to providing a guide for industrial marketing practice, it challenges the efficacy of the traditional (4Ps) theory of marketing, which at its core relies on concepts that are not reflected in the study’s empirical findings, contemporary marketing theory, and contemporary marketing practice.