Technology Gain in Development and Industrialization

Information, organization (changes in production processes or division of labor) and techniques (machines, tools and other equipment and their communication rules, auxiliary activities such as maintenance-repair and training) for the production of a good or service are defined under the title of technology as a whole.

Technological development; includes the concepts of invention (a new idea), innovation (commercialization of the invention) and diffusion (transfer of innovation from firm to firm and user to user and adoption of its use).

According to what Vural Savaş has quoted from Hagen, industrialization; It is not an automatic means to create technological knowledge, rationalization and entrepreneurial talent. Looking at the development of advanced countries, industrialization was carried out by entrepreneurs who "learned to think rationally" (it is not important in this context whether the entrepreneur is in the public or private sector). Otherwise, industrialization did not create a rational entrepreneur class.

The most important factor that ensures the real independence of a country and its prestige in the international arena is technological power. When technological power is reached, economic power and military power are also reached.

The survival of a country that is technologically dependent on other countries; depends on the tolerance and interests of the countries holding the technology. Unless the overall technological infrastructure is strong, long-term permanence cannot be achieved even if it can be strong for a while in defense-intensive industries such as the aviation industry.

When we look at the prominent definitions in the context of technology and technological development, production technology, material technology and organizational technology come to mind first.

Production technology refers to all production information, design technology refers to the entirety of information necessary for the creation of a new and independent technological product.

Material technology includes information on the production of semi-finished products and raw materials used as inputs in the production process.

Organizational technology is defined as the information integrity that will enable all other technology disciplines to work together and in harmony.

Technological change takes place with the efforts of companies and investments in research and development (R&D). As is true in most industries, learning by doing is still an important phenomenon for companies and is one of the important foundations of technological change and development. Countries and technology companies in this context; continues its development trends by rapidly transforming new ideas into technical and commercial success for growth, competition and employment. In this context, it can be said that there is a non-linear process between research, application, innovation and the market. Because the innovation process is full of uncertainties, every R&D may not lead to an innovation or a new product. The main objective of government policy should be to solve the problems of interaction and process management in developing technological capability and building technological capacity. Such a government policy paves the way for companies in technology acquisition and overall development, and benefits the country's development and industrialization.

Technologies created or developed in the territory of the developed (Central) country make the developing (periphery) countries, which want to realize industrialization by transferring these technologies, dependent on the central countries. In order to overcome the dependency, developing countries need to have a very good grasp of the technology to be purchased in order to make better technology choices and increase their bargaining power. In this context, reaching the capacity to adapt foreign technology to the conditions of the country, and subsequently developing local technological capabilities, is a necessity that should be given importance in order to achieve a holistic success in the dimension of national development and industrialization.

The technology capability, which includes the production, investment and innovation skills and competencies of countries and/or companies, covers all processes from the production of knowledge to its transformation into innovative products and commercialization.

The most decisive factor in the acquisition process of technological talent, which is shaped in relation to each other, including national technological effort, international technology and labor transfer, is the capacity and ability to learn technology. Technological capability, which is both a condition and a result of technological development, is a key factor in international competitiveness at macro level, economic growth and development; At the micro level, it is an indicator of the competitiveness of companies and countries, and is a strategic element of industrial development.

Technological ability; consists of the ability of a firm to use its technology effectively (production and efficiency), to choose the most suitable technology option among the current conditions (investment in appropriate technology) and to develop new technology options (innovation) in order to provide a strategic competitive advantage.

In this context, the problem of choosing the appropriate technology in the Peripheral countries is to use technology in the analysis of various problems encountered in industrialization. places it in a central position. All factors affecting technology such as the nature of the product produced, the organization of the production process, the scale of the product (production amount/number), thus the size of the addressed market, the type and amount of energy used, complementary inputs, semi-finished product requirements and the level of development of infrastructure facilities, puts its stamp on the technology structure.

The fact that the peripheral countries can develop the most original technology in accordance with their own social and economic conditions by developing their own scientific and technical skills instead of the technology readily available from the Central countries may open new doors and promises for themselves. To this end, these countries should adopt an effective science and technology policy, aim for social, economic, cultural independence and self-sufficiency.

Technology poverty is defined as the deprivation of the human, physical and financial resources necessary for the production of the technologies they need by the countries in terms of macroeconomics and companies in terms of microeconomics. When the causes of technological poverty are examined, it is seen that the generally experienced poverty, the funds allocated for education and health remain at a low level, causing human capital poverty, and consequently technology poverty.

The state, especially the developmental state, plays or at least is expected to play the locomotive role in the development of human capital in underdeveloped countries. If the developmental state understanding, which envisages the use and development of national resources as a development tool, is abandoned, the share allocated to education and health, which are the components of human capital, may naturally be low in that country. This becomes the main factor that ultimately causes technological poverty and technological deficit across the country.

The difference between the technology levels of any two countries is called the technological gap. It is the difference between the levels of invention (invention) and innovation between the two countries. Advances in fields such as information technologies, telecommunications, biotechnology and nanotechnology make the difference between the technology levels between the two countries more evident.

Posner, who introduced the technological deficit approach in the 1960s, argued that a certain time is needed for the technological innovation emerging in one country to be adopted in another country, to gain the ability to be produced in that country, and to take its place as a market product when necessary and become widespread in the market.

The factors creating the technology gap may be due to the low level of general knowledge in the developing country, as well as the legal sanctions such as partial patent rights and export restrictions of some goods and intermediate goods. The primary condition for raising the level of technology in a country is the existence of trained human capital. In addition, in order to support R&D and transfer the resources needed in this framework for research and development activities, it is necessary to have sufficient resources after meeting the mandatory needs in that country, and therefore, the country's general income level is needed. In this context, a certain period of time must be spent in this sense in order for developing countries to reach the level of developed countries.

In addition, traditional society structure that is closed to innovation, undeveloped social institutions, irrational attitudes and political instability are among the factors that cause technology deficit outside the economy. Renewing the machinery and equipment used in the industry in a country that is already in use, increasing the experience by learning by doing with the renewed machinery and equipment and knowledge, and making the technology better used over time (Horndal effect) and gaining the ability to transfer new technologies from developed countries (advantage of late comers) can contribute to a certain extent in closing the technology gap.

Because the main factor that provides the accumulation of technological talent in developed countries; While learning by research is more important in developing countries, learning by doing is a priority. The learning by doing process may turn into a learning process after a certain period of time, depending on the technological assimilation and technological ability capacity of the countries.

Countries with a high level of technology have reached the pinnacle of size, as the German National Economist List puts it. It is common for a person who reaches the summit early to push the ladder or not to share the key with others (ladder & key syndrome) in order to prevent others from climbing the summit after him.

In addition, pre-industrialized countries, underdeveloped or developing countries trying to follow themselves, in their efforts to develop their industries, to acquire new industries, or to apply for infant industry practices, such as incentives, protection, customs duties, etc. emphasizes that natural methods are “wrong”. On the other hand, intellectual property patent applications, regulations to protect key technologies (and even products) related to security and defense, etc. With these methods, they do not shy away from making it difficult to transfer advanced technologies to underdeveloped countries.

The most important technology transfer method used by lagging countries in technology transfer in the past is the "import" of skilled labor, which is the embodiment of a large part of technological knowledge. Today, transferring the expertise of the qualified workforce working in the design, development and production stages of high-tech products in the factories of developed countries to another country may open the door to the transfer of a known technology to that country, in a way, a brain drain. However, without machinery and equipment, without the necessary design tools, software and methods, manpower alone is not enough.

It is known that in order to overcome the high protection system applied by developed countries, some countries use industrial espionage methods and try to transfer the technology they need from their competitors or countries that host high technology, thus being successful.

Ultimately, technology transfer for development and industrialization is the main factor that should be given the most importance for all countries with a developmental state understanding. In addition, together with research and development activities, holistic studies for the acquisition of technology should be combined with 'planning' tools to be determined/updated in line with country policies, and it should be aimed to raise the national technology level. For this, a public approach is needed that will lead all industrialization processes and technology acquisition mechanisms in this context. An industrialization and technology acquisition process that is not led by the state is unlikely to be successful.

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