An exploratory study of human resource aspects of international technology transfers to Sri Lankan private sector manufacturing firms

Purpose: To explore project-level human resource aspects of international technology transfers into private sector manufacturing firms in Sri Lanka. Design/methodology/approach: The study collected data from 35 international technology transfer projects. A self-administered survey questionnaire was chosen as the main mode for data collection. In addition to descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression were used to analyse data. Findings: Firms have acquired product, process, and management-system technologies from countries having different institutional environments, namely, USA, Europe, China, Japan, and India. It was found that the country from which technology was sourced and the type of technology predict several project-level human resource aspects explored in this study. Originality/value: The acquisition of human resource capabilities provides the central underpinning in international technology transfers. There is a marked absence of research-led literature on technology transfers at the project-level that resulted in less developed countries in Asia.