An empirical study of the influencing factors and internal mechanism of technology transfer behavior of civilian enterprises participating in military production

CAI Jian-Feng; ZHANG Fang

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Science Research Management ›› 2021, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (2) : 30-39.

An empirical study of the influencing factors and internal mechanism of technology transfer behavior of civilian enterprises participating in military production

Cai Jianfeng^1,2, Zhang Fang^1,2

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Abstract

Military-civilian technology transfer, as an important part of China′s civil-military integration and innovation-driven development strategy, has become an effective way to co-ordinate the elements of military-civilian technology innovation and to lead the innovation of military-civilian science and technology. It is also an important way to promote the transfer of military and civilian technology to fully integrate the advantageous resources of civilian enterprises to participate in national defense. Therefore, it is essential to identify the influencing factors of technology transfer and clarifying its internal mechanism to improve the efficiency of technology transfer and promote the deep integration of military and civilian. The analysis of existing literature shows that the factors affecting the technology transfer include both external and internal factors. However, most of the previous research results are based on the macro level and lack of systematic and quantitative research. The mechanism of influencing factors on the technology transfer needs to be studied further.

The main influencing factors of technology transfer are technical characteristics, technology recipients, technology sources, relationships and environment. Technical characteristics include technological complexity and implicitness; technology recipients mainly refer to the technological capabilities and absorptive capabilities of civilian enterprises; technology sources focus on the transfer experience and transfer capabilities of military enterprises; relationship factors are examined from two aspects of technological potential difference and enterprise network relationship; and environmental factors refer to the environmental construction of the current civil-military integration system.

In order to ensure the reliability and validity of the measurement tools, the main variables used in this study (Table 1) are derived from the mature scales, and are modified according to the actual situation of civilian enterprises participating in the military. The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part is the basic information of the enterprise. The second part is the main body of the questionnaire. The subjects of the questionnaire were asked by Richter Five -Point Scale. Before the formal issuance of large sample questionnaires，a small range of questionnaires were issued for predictive testing, and its reliability and validity were preliminarily tested. The questionnaire was perfected according to the test results, which was served as the formal survey.

The survey selected some civilian enterprises in Shanxi, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Shaanxi as research samples, using questionnaire survey method by visiting MBA students or enterprises and sending e-mails. Structural equation model is used to analyze the fitting degree and path coefficient of the model. The fitting parameters of the model are shown in Table 3, which shows that the fitting degree of the whole model is better. However, some path coefficients are not significant. This path is deleted and the model is modified. The modified model and the path coefficients between variables are shown in Figure 2.

The empirical results show that technical characteristics have significant negative influence on technology transfer. The recipient′s technology capability, absorption capability, technology providers′ transfer capability, enterprise network relations and institutional environment construction all positively affect technology transfer, while the recipient′s technology capability and enterprise network relations play a positive role in promoting absorption capability. Technology gap and transfer effect appear inverted U type relationship. Transfer experience of technology providers has no significant influence on technology transfer.

Among these factors, the capability of civilian enterprises and military enterprises play a key role in the technology transfer. The technological capability of civilian enterprises and transfer capability of military enterprises have the greatest impact on technology transfer. The technological capability of civilian enterprises not only directly affects the technology transfer, but also indirectly affects technology transfer through absorptive capacity. The transfer capability of military enterprises directly affects the technology reception and learning of civilian enterprises. Enterprise network relationship affects technology transfer through direct and indirect ways. According to social network theory, the behavior of civilian enterprises is embedded in the network of social connections, and their technological learning ability is affected by the social situation. Network size and relationship embedding strength are the main variables reflecting the characteristics of agent relationship network. The strong network scale and relationship embedding strength of civilian enterprises can improve their efficiency of absorbing and integrating military knowledge. The construction of institutional environment plays an important role in the transfer of military and civilian technology. At present, most of the process of civil participation in the army is still in initial stage, and many problems faced by the transfer of military and civilian technology include laws, regulations and institutional mechanisms. To a certain extent, the construction of institutional environment can break through the barriers faced by civilian enterprises and effectively promote the integration between civilian enterprises and military enterprises.

According to its main findings, this paper offers the following suggestions. First, civilian enterprises should pay attention to improving their own technological capabilities. Compared with civil products, military products have more stringent requirements for product performance. Therefore, a strong technical capability is an effective "knocking brick" for enterprises to participate in the military production. On the one hand, civilian enterprises should strengthen their R&D capabilities, such as increasing investment in R&D, building a talent training and mobility system, increasing the training and introduction of technological research-oriented talents; on the other hand, they can make rational use of existing sharing platforms and strengthen cooperation with colleges and universities, so as to further enhance the R&D capability and efficiency. Second, military enterprises should strengthen the ability of technology transfer. Military enterprises can establish an evaluation system for the characteristics of technology and the capability of civilian enterprises, and select appropriate ways to transfer technology based on the evaluation. Furthermore, military enterprises can strengthen the quality of their relations with civilian enterprises, establish a mechanism of equality, mutual benefit, fairness and friendship, so as to expand the depth of technology sharing and weaken the difficulties of tacit technology integration. In addition, military enterprises should also pay attention to the technical differences between civilian and military enterprises. To guide civilian enterprises to participate in their scientific research and production, military enterprises should evaluate the differences of technological capabilities between the two sides according to their demands, so as to avoid the waste of resources. Third, the government should create a good environment for military-civilian technology transfer. It should formulate and improve relevant supporting laws, regulations, policies and systems, improve market mechanism, establish a centralized, unified, simple, efficient, comprehensive and fine public service platform, maximize the sharing and docking of military and civilian technology and resources, and effectively break through the obstacles in the civilian participation and create a good environment for the transfer of military and civilian technology.

Key words

civil-military integration / civilian enterprises participating in military production / technology transfer / influencing factor / internal mechanism

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Cai Jianfeng, Zhang Fang. An empirical study of the influencing factors and internal mechanism of technology transfer behavior of civilian enterprises participating in military production[J]. Science Research Management. 2021, 42(2): 30-39

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