Problem statement. Issue of technology transfer is addressed in the definition of K. Freeman’s national innovation system: initiation, import, modify and disseminate new technologies. According to A. Gerschenkron, the founder of the theory of catching up development, there is some advantage of backwardness that allows to borrow the already established institutions, management techniques and technologies.

International organizations are considering the international transfer of technology not as a one-time event, but as a complex and prolonged process, comprising selection and acquisition of technology; adaptation and development of the acquired technologies; development of local capacity to improve technology relevant to the national economy. International high-the transfer policy channel selection also plays an important part because it allows to get technology with the necessary potential.

Main results of the research. International technology transfer refers to any process by which a party in one country gains access to technical information of a foreign party and successfully absorbs it into its production process. The importance of ITT for economic development is widely recognized and it has been argued that barriers to technology adoption help explain the income gap between developed and developing countries. Such barriers include regulatory an institutional constraints that entrepreneurs must overcome, and low levels of human capital. However, the technology frontier is a moving target – new technologies are continually being introduced. To close the technology gap, developing countries must adopt new technologies, at a faster rate than they are being created. Both market forces and government policies have an important role to play in accomplishing this formidable task [1].

The assessment of the relative importance of various channels of technology transfer for countries within the OECD showed that experts prefer three channels: 1) information channels of communication with businesses, 2) use of the inventions of third parties (acquisition of patents and licenses) and 3) trade equipment.

International technology transfer may take the following forms: a) patent agreement – international trading, for which the patent owner gives the right to use the invention to buyer; b) license agreement – international trading, by which the owner of the invention gives the other party permission to use it in a licensing limits; c) know-how – transfer of technical expertise and trade secrets, the use of which provides certain advantages in achieving its ultimate goal; g) engineering agreement – an agreement for engineering and consulting services to the buyer for the implementation of the technical project.

The main form of international technology transfer is license trade, which is carried out on the base of license agreements. When concluding the license agreement (licensing agreement) the owner transfers the rights to intangible assets to the buyer for a specified period and for a certain fee. The object of the license agreement may have patents, inventions, formulas, processes, designs, diagrams, trademarks, franchises, software, etc. This agreement usually requires the licensor (technology seller) to provide technical information and assistance, and the licensee – to use the law.

Especially it is necessary to highlight the problem of confidentiality, which arises due to the fact that the value of many technical innovations reduced, if information about them is available. Therefore the condition of the secrecy of confidential information has traditionally been an indispensable point of the license agreement.

According to methodology P. Morone and R. Taylor [2, p. 18], the analysis of the types of knowledge transfer will begin by highlighting the key dichotomy: transfer of knowledge can mean barter relationships between entities: some knowledge of one subject is transferred to another entity, which pays for this transaction the transfer of his knowledge in the reverse direction, or in any other way and this model of knowledge transfer is called acquisition of knowledge («knowledge gain») and in the case of a pure barter (when knowledge is exchanged for one kind of knowledge of the other species), common to speak of sharing knowledge («​​knowledge exchange»), and in the case of payment for the knowledge gained money, goods, services, and other tangible and intangible values, talk about the knowledge trade («knowledge trade»). Transfer of knowledge also can be carried out without awareness of this fact, the interaction of actors and this model is called diffusion of knowledge. For a more detailed study of the phenomenon of diffusion of knowledge to make structural deduction and distinguish the following types of it: knowledge spillover; interpenetration of knowledge; knowledge integration.

Evaluation of different channels of international technology transfer is given in Table 1.

Table 1. Evaluation different forms of international technology transfer

Source: developed by the author

The assessment is based on the fact that high-tech combines both explicit and implicit knowledge. The results of the analysis show that international cooperation is more preferable.

Actors of the international technology transfer at the micro level are affiliated to the parent company of the firm and independent company, and at the macro level – the countries (donors and recipients of technology).

Consideration states as subjects of international technology transfer suggests that the international transfer of technology depends mainly on the strategic goals and motives of the companies defined under the influence of institutional and economic environment on the macro level [3]. Behavioral motives are a set of motives that form the subject of technology strategy necessary for the development process of international technology transfer. Institutional and economic environment implies an analysis of the set of conditions necessary for the improvement of international technology transfer process that determine the socio-economic development entities and the impact on their behavioral motives.

International transfer of technology and its channels will play a different role according to type of the chosen model of innovative development, which is formed by the features and capabilities of the economy and chosen development strategy.

Traditional model is represented in the main countries of Euro-Atlantic region. This is a model of the full innovation cycle – from the formation of an innovative idea to mass production of the finished product.

Typically, this model includes all of the components of the structure of the innovation system: basic and applied science, R&D, production of prototype and mass production, as well as different types of structure expertise, funding and training (figure 1).

The second model of innovative development is significantly different from traditional model and is represented mainly by countries in East Asia: Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, China. In the East Asian innovation cycle usually there is no component of fundamental and applied science, even partially. These innovative models tend to focus on the export of high-tech products, while borrowing technology from the countries themselves traditional model. The most striking example of the innovative development model is Japan.

Another innovative development model has been applied in countries that don’t have significant potential in the field of basic and applied science. These countries are not characterized by rich reserves of raw materials, technology, processing or sale of which could form the basis of national competitiveness etc. As a result, in the innovation cycle of these countries there is no system of basic and applied science, as well as virtually no high-tech cycle. Innovation policy of these countries is focused on borrowing and distribution, rather than on creating new technologies for the development of education in the field of economics, management, sociology and psychology of work, training of personnel for the financial and banking sectors, in the development of fragments of light industry, creative industry and recreation. Much attention is paid to the cultivation of management to local offices of large multinational corporations, international banks, international political structures etc. However, it should be noted that the reorientation of innovative development from high-tech to high-hume allows these countries to achieve very high rates of economic growth. As an example of such an innovative development model can be called a national innovation system in Thailand, Turkey, Portugal, Chile and Jordan.

Fig. 1. – Four idealized phases of techno-economic “great surges” [7]

The authors suggest we use a project-based approach to the assessment of the international transfer of high technology. Specificity of high-tech projects is that they provide an opportunity to develop the economy as a whole. To assess the need to include the projects that should be implemented (by selecting determine whether the high-tech project priorities; choose a project based on the following factors: the level of technology, innovation, productivity, working conditions, environmental impact of the project, the potential cross-sectoral transfer). Next, you need to support projects that invest primarily chosen because for their implementation resources are of higher quality. To each option we award the rank (score) and each project is estimated in the range and multiplied by rank.

An example of project approach will demonstrate an example of intersectoral transfers, when technology changes affect the traditional raw sectors, such as oil production. It is the availability of modern technology and a highly skilled workforce has allowed European countries to carry out development of offshore fields in the North Sea.

We should also set an opposite example, when the lack of technology does not allow states to independently develop its oil fields. Exploration and exploitation of oil deposits off the coast of West Africa, one of the most promising oil and gas regions in the world, is completely western, rather than national companies.

The least effective areas include contracts for joint research and the purchase of finished business. It is obvious that such an assessment is related to the differentiation in the level of reliability of information channels, reliability of the information received and guarantees positive result of the transfer [4, p. 20].

According to the theory of technological gap in international relations increasingly stronger tendency of prevailing exchange high-tech on high-tech compared to commercial forms of exchange (high-tech integration).

High-tech integration as the integration and collaboration of a few developed countries in the development and sharing of high technology, allows leaders of the world economy: the benefits of the international division of labor in the implementation of R&D and thereby eliminate wasteful duplication of research and development (the nature of the occurrence of the economic effect of high-tech integration the same as in the case of integrating economies lowest level – individual enterprises), to exclude the possibility of access in most developing and transition countries to the most advanced technology, which provides a guaranteed technical and technological backwardness of the past, their lack of competitiveness and the development of peripheral [5].

A new trend has been the formation of international strategic technology alliances, long-term agreements between firms to combine their resources to achieve common goals for mutual benefit and without loss of autonomy of the participants. By the end of the last century about 9 thousand of these alliances were formed. U.S. corporations have participated in 80% of the largest and most well-known joint partnerships, EU – 42% of the Japanese – 15% [6, p.9].

Group of leading countries which are developing more rapidly and occupy a strong position in the market and due to existing capacity strengthening its position is formed. For example, U.S. every 5 years almost completely changes the terminology in computer science. Shaping the language industry, they control the market of knowledge, setting standards and try not to let others in the process. As a result, countries that are not included in the group of partners or do not have sufficient adaptive capacity and capabilities of international transfers are increasingly behind the leading countries. Countries that are actively involved international technological exchange effectively use intellectual resources, have a much higher potential for development and able to get any resources appropriate level of quality that will continue to further strengthen the innovation inequality.

Transfer of high technologies (macro technologies) in most cases can only be made within the framework of regional or even international projects as the owner of these technologies primarily serve interregional scientific- production complexes, individual countries or multinationals. According to researchers, in today’s world of innovative breakthrough success can only provide strategic alliances. Advanced countries cannot fully monopolize high technology, but free trade spaces create countries within which technology transfer will be more intense than outside. As a result, they are able to most effectively develop new generation of high technologies.

High-tech subjects are forming a new principle of relationships with partners. The principle of “competition with everyone and cooperation with the elected” has been replaced by another – “the competition with the elected and cooperation with others”. This principle is realized in the creation of industrial and commercial agglomerations – temporary, relatively stable association with a common industrial base, technological, scientific and technical unity. Some data of scientific and industrial cooperation leading high-tech corporations are given in Table. 2.

Table 2 – International cooperation in high-tech [8]

One of the most common forms of international cooperation is joint projects in the field of technological innovation, implemented within the framework of relevant international programs. For organizing and conducting this kind of project requires precise understanding of the information that may have an impact on the success of the project.

Openness to international cooperation in Europe and the best minds in the world can only maximize the excellence of its scientific base and innovative industries. In this context, the European Commission today presented a new strategy for the development of international cooperation in science and innovation. This strategy involves the future direction of cooperation on the strategic priorities of the EU, while retaining the traditional openness of European research for the participation of third countries. In one of the strategic priorities include finding solutions to global problems, and the desire to make Europe a more attractive place for research and development innovation, as well as stimulating the competitiveness of European industry.

At least 20% of EU research projects already include at least 1 member from countries outside the EU. For example, currently under the partnership for clinical trials between European and developing countries to cooperation between the 14 member countries of the EU, Switzerland, Norway and 47 countries in sub-Saharan Africa in the development of new drugs and vaccines to fight HIV / AIDS malaria and tuberculosis [9].

Formation of technology manager profession in the world now takes place mainly through the activities of professional associations, that facilitate the spread of good practice in the field commercialization of technologies, the formation of stable relations between universities, research organizations and industry, and also organize professional training in the field of transfer technology. Such associations already exist in Europe (ASTP), the UK (AURIL), USA (AUTM), South East Asia and Australia [10]. The main forms of association managers on transfer technology is conducting conferences, seminars, trainings, issue magazines as well as information and consultation assistance to specialists in technology transfer.

Conclusion. Globalization of high technology and the increasing trend of the technology gap requires a strategy of technological development, the lack of which makes it virtually reject all options for the formation of the national innovation system. The formation of an innovation-oriented economy requires the definition of long-term strategic goals for both the public sector and for private businesses and the creation of mechanisms and incentives to achieve them. for the preservation and development of scientific and industrial potential of the country should be strengthened and guide the regulatory role of the state. In the innovation economy, it must develop and implement a strategy of scientific, technological and industrial development, which would build on the existing scientific, technical and production potential and would be aimed at promoting the structural transformation of the economy towards overcoming export commodity dependence and ensure consistently high dynamics and the quality of economic growth. This strategy should include: involvement in the economic turnover of already accumulated and again the results of basic research and applied research; using of intellectual property and the implementation of innovation and competitive in the domestic and global markets; association and concentration of resources and efforts of state authorities at all levels, organizations of scientific and technical sphere, the business sector of the economy; using potential of the global innovation system and support for international innovation cooperation.