Conceptualizing technological change: technology transfer in the green revolution

Technological change, and technology transfer as an aspect of this process, is examined by providing a comparative assessment of models of this phenomenon from economics, history, sociology, and neo-Schumpeterian-evolutionary studies.

The Green Revolution, which is used as the empirical basis for testing these models, is generally referred to as the change in agricultural technology observed in some Third World countries in the 1960s and 70s as a result of the transfer of high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of seeds and a new culture of agricultural practice resulting in high productivity of the land.

It is found that most of the examined models of technological change do not completely account for this process. It is argued that technological change should be conceptualized as a process of knowledge change. Artifactual change, which the examined models accentuate, should be viewed as the manifestation of the knowledge change at a secondary level. With the Green Revolution as the empirical basis, arguments are presented for a comprehensive model of technological change within the framework of "technology as knowledge."