Technology Transfer in Construction: a View of Algeria M SAAD and M GREENWOOD The School of Business Systems Management Bristol Business School, The University of the West of England Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY, U.K Mohammed.Saad@uwe.ac.uk Abstract Algeria has been striving to achieve significant and rapid economic development. The seventies saw the flow of ‘petrol-dollars’ from the significant rise of the oil price in 1973 and ‘all-embracing’ contracts were encouraged. These, somewhat expensive, ‘turnkey’ and ‘product-in hand’ contracts enabled complex and highly integrated projects through the re-assembly of all project operations and transference of the entire responsibility for the project to the technology supplier. In the early eighties, the nation’s improving bargaining capability plus the drastic decline in the oil price (hence available investment) prompted a change in focus. Algerian organisations began to feel a vital need to disintegrate, or unpack, projects and Algerian managers were directed to participate in the whole process of technology transfer. Today however, it is increasingly recognised that this strategy has fallen short of achieving the ambitious objectives of exploiting the full learning potential of technology transfer. The outcomes have not reflected the high level of investments. This development programme has led to a significant increase in building. However, construction projects in Algeria are characterised by high (and increasing) costs, poor quality and long delays. As an example, housing construction costs grew by 10% from 1975 to 1989, by 120% from 1982 to 1989 and by 285% from 1989 to 1998. These drastic increases can be associated with both the introduction of ‘structural reform’ and the devaluation of the currency (1987: $1 = DA 4.9; 1998; $1 = DA 61). The cost of labour, on the other hand, has decreased (1989: 34%; 1998: 20%). This paper not only examines the strategy of technology transfer adopted by Algerian construction organisations but also seeks to evaluate its impact on the development of their technological capability. To achieve this it attempts to detect the pattern followed by these organisations as they develop and to determine any similarity to models previously identified by a literature review. The paper argues that learning is the most influential element in determining the success of technology transfer; the various mechanisms of learning and their impact on the development of learning capabilities are investigated. The importance of management capability in construction is also highlighted. Keywords: Algeria, construction, developing countries, learning, management, strategy, technology transfer. INTRODUCTION In developing countries the basic source of industrial development, which in reality is knowledge and technological change, is the industrialised countries. The process is known as “technology transfer” or, as defined by Rodrigues (1985), the “application of new technology to a new use or user for economic gain”.