A new perspective on the intersectoral movement of new technology

How does technology originally created to meet the needs of one socioeconomic sector find application in an entirely different sector? In answering this question, a basis for interpreting and formulating federal policy related to the secondary utilization of publicly owned technology, has been provided. A model for explaining the intersectoral movement of new technology via two different and distinctive mechanisms — diffusion and transfer — is developed and then illustrated in this paper by case studies. This perspective builds on widely accepted views and unmasks the institutional characteristics which are the controlling influences for these mechanisms.