Benchmarking construction technology transfer in Thailand

In an effort to more rapidly develop their infrastructure, economies and living standards, many newly industrialized countries, such as Thailand, have embarked on a series of international Technology Transfer (TT) initiatives within the construction and other industries. However, these initiatives have not immediately translated into enhanced capabilities and competitiveness within indigenous firms, resulting in a sustained reliance on foreign firms. With few clues as to why TT ventures have not created expected outcomes for the indigenous construction industry, newly industrialized countries lack direction on how to more rapidly diffuse best-practice technology. Management philosophies such as benchmarking and performance measurement have become essential activities for firms, across all industry sectors, to achieve continuous process improvement and maintain competitiveness in the global market. In an attempt to better diagnose the health of TT ventures and ultimately improve rates of TT, this paper promotes benchmarking as a tool for measuring baseline and future performance across a wide range of TT perspectives. Utilizing the results from a questionnaire survey of 162 industry professionals from Thailand, a TT performance measurement framework, consisting of eight diverse perspectives was formulated through exploratory factor analysis. These perspectives represent the enablers and outcomes of the TT process, namely: (1) technology characteristics; (2) government influence; (3) relationship building; (4) transferor characteristics; (5) transferee characteristics; (6) economic advancement; (7) knowledge advancement; and (8) project performance. The framework was utilized to provide a baseline benchmark index of TT performance in Thailand. A benchmark score of 70% was determined, implying that up to 2005, construction TT ventures in Thailand have been operating moderately to highly effectively/successfully. Moreover, the TT performance of individual transferor nationalities operating in Thailand was compared. The study provides some evidence that Japanese construction firms are not only the leading exporter of construction services to Thailand but also perform slightly higher across TT performance perspectives influenced by the transferor.