查看文章

The existence of technology gaps between developed and developing countries is well-known. Within the construction context, the latter have, for decades, embarked on project-based international technology transfer (ITT) to improve their construction industries. However, attempts consistently fall short in yielding the desired outcomes, and foreign contractors dominate in the delivery of vital projects in these countries. Technology is commonly viewed as embodied in physical technical artefacts or foreign experts. Transfer is expected to take place once local parties work with foreigners using new technology on a project. The process of ITT is therefore reduced to a linear transaction between parties pervasively categorised into ‘transferors’ and ‘transferees’. These views about ITT and the components involved conflict with the intrinsically complex sociotechnical process of construction project delivery and neglect dynamic micro-processes entailed. Consequently, such perspectives generate inaccurate understandings that misrepresent what ITT entails. Construction project-based ITT involves complicated and dynamic interactions involving actors and technical artefacts of technology in a specific environment. To unpack the intricacies, this research examines what happens when new technology is introduced and used in a new environment as part of a project-based ITT attempt. The study, inspired by the social construction of technology (SCOT) approach, rejects reductionist views about ITT and its components. Instead, the process is conceptualised as comprising series of sociotechnical interactions involving a dynamic composition of technology …