Empirical Studies as a Means for Technology Transfer

Technological innovation within an enterprise is a key success factor. The introduction of a new technology aims to improve efficacy and effectiveness of the production processes with respect to business goals, and also to better adapt the products to the market needs. Nevertheless, it is often difficult to introduce a technology within an industrial setting due to the barriers encountered by managers and development teams. In this optic, our research questions are: Can empirical studies be a decision support for introducing and transferring a new technology in an enterprise? Which types of empirical studies are more suitable for introducing and transferring a new technology, according to industrial needs? The paper answers these questions by discussing the results of various empirical studies, carried out in the last ten years of research in the University of Bari. The paper motivates how such studies represent a manner for evaluating innovation risks, costs and benefits for introducing a new technology in production processes. Also, involvement in empirical studies allows development teams to “learn by doing” and overcome their cultural inertia. Finally it points out that if the benefits due to the technological innovation are felt by both managers and developers, the innovation has high probability of being adopted as a regular practice