Designing a knowledge based technology transfer model using the fourth generation approach in the automotive industry

Abstract

Technology transfer is a process involving diverse and complex dimensions as an effective tool to reduce the technological gap between developed and developing countries. Over the last century, technology futurism has gone through three eras and is now entering its fourth generation. In the first generation the content of technology forecasting focused on hard technologies, the second generation focused on the combination of hard technology and the market, and the third generation focused on the future of hard technology and integrating social and economic dimensions. In the fourth generation, the emphasis has been on soft technologies, hard technologies, integration of economic, social, political and environmental dimensions as effective factors in technology transfer. The process of technology transfer in the Iranian automobile industry has been limited to the introduction of a set of machinery, maps, catalogs and guidelines. And based on the fuzzy Delphi method, a model has been developed for the transfer of knowledge-based technologies in the automotive industry with a fourth generation technology futuristic approach.