Improving the technological capacity of the local contractors through e-business technology transfer - the case of the local ghanaian contractors

Adzroe, EK; Ingirige, Bingunath

Abstract

Technology transfer (TT) within construction has emerged as an important business activity across many developing countries across the globe including Ghana. For several years TT from developed countries has been viewed as a key element in addressing the low levels of technological development and know-how in developing countries construction industries. TT according to many writers and researchers involve mostly cross-border initiatives with the main purpose to improve the capacity of the local contractor. This paper therefore, considers TT as a mechanism for improving the capacity of the local contractor in developing countries. In this regard, TT could be viewed in the form of knowledge (soft technology), skills and tools (hard technology) which usually come from developed countries to developing countries through construction project activities. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to assess the influence of foreign contractors in supporting transfer of e-business technology to the Ghanaian construction industry. In view of this, a total number of five (5) semi-structured interviews were conducted as follow: one (1) foreign firm, two (2) expert interviews and two (2) local contractors (collaborators) representing one case study out of a total of three. This research involved an interpretivist approach based on qualitative data in order to have an in-depth understanding of the objective of this paper and have insight into how practitioners perceive the roles of foreign contractors in the transfer of e-business technology to improve performance in the construction industry in Ghana. This paper reports that content analysis shows the important role that foreign contractors play within the context of e-business technology transfer. The results also show that foreign firms undertake TT in an ad hoc manner and this exercise need to be streamlined. They further indicate several arguments on the need to address the identified barriers to enable the industry to harness the full potentials of e-business.

Citation

Adzroe, E., & Ingirige, B. (2014, May). Improving the technological capacity of the local contractors through e-business technology transfer - the case of the local ghanaian contractors. Presented at CIB W55/65/89/92/96/102/117 & TG72/81/83 International Conference on Construction in a Changing World Heritance Kandalama, Sri Lanka, 4th-7th May 2014, Sri Lanka

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: CIB W55/65/89/92/96/102/117 & TG72/81/83 International Conference on Construction in a Changing World Heritance Kandalama, Sri Lanka, 4th-7th May 2014
• Conference Location: Sri Lanka
• Start Date: May 4, 2014
• End Date: May 7, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Mar 21, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 21, 2014
• Related Public URLs: http://www.cib2014.org/
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference