Knowledge-intensive transfer of innovation: electronic commerce and small business

It is widely recognised that Technology Transfer (TT) mainly involves the transmission of knowledge to implement and deploy any new technology. This is particularly the case of ‘soft’ technologies, such as e-commerce, where the use of the technology is not predetermined by its physical features, but must be conceived according to the specific needs of the network of online traders. To enable the transfer of such knowledge, the assistance of a third party is often used, especially in the case of small firms. The paper analyses the role of a special kind of locally based TT assistants. The approaches and problems of two distinct models of local assistants are identified and examined, as well as the implications for managing the transfer of e-commerce technologies to small companies.