Technology Transfer as a form of Co-Creation for Future Market Creation: Issues, Frames and Concepts

In developing countries the creation of opportunities for improving the livelihood of citizens remains a major preoccupation of governments, non-government organisations, international funding agencies and technologists. In the past developmental strategists and policy makers have conceptualised development as an instance of capacity building (Thursby et al. 2009) where technology transfer in particular has been considered primarily as a diffusion process (José et al. 2009). Technology in this case, is introduced because it is seen to be a benevolent lever for human development (Musa et al. 2005). In this paper we will develop an alternative argument to the benevolence thesis predicating its success or failure in a local context on the nature of the cocreation process and the facilitation of a parallel market where the outcomes of the co-creation process can be exchanged. The paper aims to conceptualise co-creation as an alternative to technology transfer and demonstrate how co-creation of ICT innovation can enable the emergence of future markets. We argue how our conception of the co-creation of future markets using ICT can be a novel way to think of technology transfer for sustained social economic development. The first part of the paper will be a framing exercise i.e. it will describe the boundaries within which co-creation operates, what we understand by co-creation and how it may help bring about a future market around a locus. This locus is enabled by generative ideas, provides the catalysts for new and novel solutions; has the ability to construct artefacts and the power to sustain the dissemination of the virtues’ of the created artefact(s). We then explain how generative ideas combine with construction motives supported by an instructive environment that will facilitate and sustain the co-creation process. Finally we will explain how technology can be identified, modified for uptake and diffusion for creating future markets.