Value Chain Innovations for Technology Transfer in Developing and Emerging Economies


Book Description

The adoption of modern technologies in agriculture is crucial for improving productivity of poor farmers and poverty reduction. However, the adoption of modern technology has been disappointing. The role of value chains in technology adoption has been largely ignored so far, despite the dramatic transformation and spread of modern agri-food value chains. We argue that value chain organization and innovations can have an important impact on modern technology adoption, not just by downstream companies, but also by farmers. We provide a conceptual framework and an empirical typology of institutional innovations through which value chains can contribute to technology transfer to agriculture in developing and emerging countries.




Value Chains and Technology Transfer to Agriculture in Developing and Emerging Economies


Book Description

Value chains in the agrifood sector are undergoing a rapid process of modernization, characterized by the emergence of private standards and different systems of vertical value chain governance. In this article, we investigate the technological implications of these developments at the farm level. We model the conditions under which technology transfer and adoption will occur in a value chain setting and review the corresponding evidence on these issues. We find that technology transfer within a value chain can occur in an environment with imperfect credit and technology markets but depends on the surplus generated by the technology and the holdup opportunities within the value chain. We also discuss how these holdup opportunities affect bargaining power and the division of surplus and how the nature of the technology affects technology transfer and the implications for value chain governance.




The Challenges of Technology and Economic Catch-up in Emerging Economies


Book Description

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Innovation is a pivotal driving force behind economic growth. Technological capability deepens and diversifies industrial activity, which fundamentally enhances growth potential. Consequently, failure to build effective technological capability can lead to slow long-term economic growth. This book synthesizes and interprets existing knowledge on technology upgrading failures in order to better understand the challenges of technology upgrading in emerging economies. The objective is to bring together diverse evidence on three major dimensions of technology upgrading: paths of technology upgrading, structural changes in the nature of technology upgrading, and the issues of technology transfer and technology upgrading. Knowledge on these three dimensions is synthesized at the firm, sector, and macro levels across different countries and world macroregions. Compared to the challenges and uncertainties facing emerging economies, our understanding of technology upgrading is sparse, unsystematic, and scattered. The recent growth slowdown in many emerging economies, often known as the middle-income trap, has reinforced the importance of understanding the technology upgrading challenges they experience. While our understanding of these issues from the 1980s and 1990s is relatively more systematised, the more recent changes that took place during the globalization and proliferation of global value chains, and the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, have not been explored and compared synthetically. The current effects of COVID-19, geopolitical struggles, and the growing concern around environmental sustainability add significant complexity to an already problematic situation. The time is ripe to take stock of our existing knowledge on processes of technology upgrading in emerging economies and make further inroads in research on this crucial issue.




Direction of innovation in developing countries and its driving forces


Book Description

Innovation is a major driving force of long-term economic growth and sustainable development. Direction of innovation matters because technical change is not neutral and hence bears significant social, economic and environmental development implications. This paper contributes to the literature through a systematic examination of the direction of innovation in developing and emerging economies and its driving forces. It shows that innovation in the global South exhibits a vibrant and diverse landscape when we do not confine ourselves with traditional research and innovation indicators. While emerging economies are accelerating their pace in inventive activities in fields such as ICTs, biotech and engineering, low-income countries (LICs) are also found to be active in learning-based, incremental “under-the-radar innovations” (URIs). These URIs that are introduced through international technology transfer and indigenous innovative efforts. Indigenous sources of URIs play a primary role in LICs, contributed by localised learning-by-doing, close interaction with customers and embeddedness in regional production networks and clusters. However, insufficient role of the state, a low science and technology intensity and a lack of university-industry linkage limit the potential of URIs. International technology transfer is another important driver of technical change in developing countries. However, its strengthen varies across countries due to differences in host country policy, absorptive capacity, and the type of foreign economic engagement that they have as well as the inappropriateness of transferred foreign technologies mostly from Global North. Given the status of direction of innovation and its driving forces in developing countries, this report argues that the unfolding 4th industrial revolution poses both challenges and opportunities to LICs. Policy implications are discussed.




Innovation for inclusive value-chain development


Book Description

Governments, nongovernmental organizations, donors, and the private sector have increasingly embraced value-chain development (VCD) for stimulating economic growth and combating rural poverty. Innovation for Inclusive Value-Chain Development: Successes and Challenges helps to fill the current gap in systematic knowledge about how well VCD has performed, related trade-offs or undesired effects, and which combinations of VCD elements are most likely to reduce poverty and deliver on overall development goals. This book uses case studies to examine a range of VCD experiences. Approaching the subject from various angles, it looks at new linkages to markets and the role of farmer organizations and contract farming in raising productivity and access to markets, the minimum assets requirement to participate in VCD, the role of multi-stakeholder platforms in VCD, and how to measure and identify successful VCD interventions. The book also explores the challenges livestock-dependent people face; how urbanization and advancing technologies affect linkages; ways to increase gender inclusion and economic growth; and the different roles various types of platforms play in VCD.




Innovation Strategy for Enterprises in Emerging Economies


Book Description

Particularly in developing economies, there is a need for business alignment with innovation strategy and execution of strategies. The authors demonstrate through real-world examples and case studies how a firm can use innovation at all levels (strategic, functional and operational) to provide benefits to the entire value chain.




Greening Global Value Chains


Book Description

Using novel data on patents, trade of equipment goods, and foreign direct investments and insights from the economic literature, the paper seeks to lay out the state of knowledge on the role of innovation and the diffusion of technologies in the greening of global value chains as well as some of the main policy issues. A special emphasis is put on developing countries -- distinguishing emerging economies and least-developed countries -- and on climate-mitigation technologies. Emerging economies are already reasonably well integrated in the global economy. As a consequence, technologies flow in through the imports of capital goods and local investments by multinational enterprises owning technologies. Pushing further technology transfer requires strengthening intellectual property rights, lowering barriers to trade and investments and improving technological absorptive capacities. In contrast, their role in innovation is limited. Standard tools of innovation policy - public research and development, public support to private research and development, better access to finance - should develop. But studies also suggest that governments should introduce more stringent environmental policies with proper enforcement at home to go beyond the adoption of foreign technologies. The situation of least-developed countries is very different: they do not import green technologies and low barriers to trade and foreign direct investment or strict intellectual property rights are unlikely to trigger technology transfer. In these countries, the focus should be on building technological capacities.




Designing Public Procurement Policy in Developing Countries


Book Description

This book presents effective strategies for developing countries to leverage their public sector demand for manufactured imports to promote industrialization, trade, and technology transfer. Technology transfer and its absorption is considered one of the most crucial and complicated challenges for developing countries, which are characterized by insufficient infrastructure, low technological intensity of the domestic capital stock, and high levels of manufactured imports. Which strategies and policy tools can governments employ to link demand with technology transfer, thereby enhancing absorption capacity and development in emerging economies? This book is part of a broader project launched by PGlobal Global Advisory and Training Services Ltd., in cooperation with Istanbul Commerce University (İTUCU) and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK). The contributors to this book are policymakers, academicians, and experts who are working together to identify problems and develop policy recommendations for public procurement with respect to economic development. The book includes theoretical, empirical, and case study analyses of technology transfer mechanisms, public procurement policies, and countertrade and offset strategies. The lessons learned from these chapters will be of interest to both academics and policymakers concerned with technology transfer, industrial policy, and economic development.




Global Value Chain Development Report 2019


Book Description

Global value chains (GVCs) are evolving in light of technological developments, such as robotics, big data and the Internet of Things. These technologies are reshaping GVCs and effecting changes on labor markets in developed and developing economies and on supply chain management. This report discusses how technological developments are creating new opportunities for the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in global value chains and reviews issues related to GVC measurement. The report is a follow-up to the first Global Value Chain Development Report, which revealed the changing nature of international trade when analyzed in terms of value chains and value-added trade. This report is co-published by the World Trade Organization, the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Research Center of Global Value Chains headquartered at the University of International Business and Economics (RCGVC-UIBE), the World Bank Group, and the China Development Research Foundation.




Technology Transfer and Innovation for Low-Carbon Development


Book Description

Technological revolutions have increased the world’s wealth unevenly and in ways that have accelerated climate change. This report argues that achieving The Paris Agreement’s objectives would require a massive transfer of existing and commercially proven low-carbon technologies (LCT) from high-income to developing countries where the bulk of future emissions is expected to occur. This mass deployment is not only a necessity but also an opportunity: Policies to deploy LCT can help countries achieve economic and other development objectives, like improving human health, in addition to reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs). Additionally, LCT deployment offers an opportunity for countries with sufficient capabilities to benefit from participation in global value chains and produce and export LCTs. Finally, the report calls for a greater international involvement in supporting the poorest countries, which have the least access to LCT and finance and the most underdeveloped physical, technological, and institutional capabilities that are essential to benefit from technology.