Call for papers: Technology Transfer in the Virtual Environment: Transnational Culture, Pricing Mechanisms and Transactional Governance

Call for papers: Technology Transfer in the Virtual Environment: Transnational Culture, Pricing Mechanisms and Transactional Governance

A special issue of International Journal of Technology Marketing

Virtual corporations and networks are common characteristics of global business these days, without clear organisational boundaries, national cultures, or governance mechanisms. Myriads of business activities including outsourcing and R&D projects are done in virtual networks to capitalise on the benefit of the information revolution. For example, the corporate reliance on global virtual networks for knowledge transfer certainly reduces institutional barriers of knowledge exchanges, including domestic and international patent laws, government regulations, and the costly procedure of carrying out contractual negotiations.

However, technology transfer in the global virtual environment can pose various threats to buyers and sellers of new technologies, including information asymmetry, cultural mismatch, opportunistic behaviours, and governance problems. Although these problems are critical, few studies have focused on the issue of the virtual technology transfer, suggesting solutions to the problems rampant in the virtual technology market.

The objective of this special issue is to provide an outlet for publishing original research highlighting current issues related to the transnational culture, pricing mechanisms and transactional governance of technology transfer and knowledge sharing in the virtual environment. We invite papers that address various aspects of technology transfer in the virtual environment from a theoretical, conceptual, and empirical perspective to set the stage for future research direction in the virtual technology transfer. Both quantitative and qualitative studies on virtual technology transfer from developed and developing countries perspectives will be encouraged.

Contributed papers may deal with, but are not limited to:

• The propagation of virtual technology transfer and knowledge sharing
• Frameworks for successful virtual technology transfer
• Social and economic impacts of virtual technology transfer
• Types of virtual technology transfer
• Cross-country comparisons of virtual technology transfer
• Virtual technology transfer in developing countries and developed countries
• Facilitators of virtual technology transfer, including public sector pricing regulators
• Models of public and private market pricing and financing virtual technology transfer
• Governance problems in virtual technology transfer
• Role of technological and regulatory environment in virtual technology transfer
• Role of project managers in virtual technology transfer for both radical and incremental innovation
• Virtual corporations and networks for technology transfer
• Governance of virtual corporations and networks for technology transfer

Important Dates
Proposal deadline (abstract only): 30 September, 2009
Submission deadline: 31 December, 2009
Notification of status and acceptance of paper: 30 June, 2010
Final version of paper: 31 July, 2010