Technology Support for Small Industries in Developing Countries: From ´Supply Push´ to ´Eightfold-C´

The paper is a review of approaches towards technology support for small-scale manufacturing enterprises in developing countries since the 1970s. Early programs tended to suffer from a number of weaknesses, emanating from inadequate conceptualization of small firms’ competitiveness and the small-scale sector in industrial development, as well as from lack of practical experience with project implementation. However, in recent years important advancements have been made on all these fronts. The paper discusses eight characteristics of recent technology assistance programs that have tended to be associated with project success. Broadly, successful projects are those that embrace the notion that durable competitiveness of small producers in a competitive economic environment requires that they develop internal capabilities to effectively assimilate, use and adapt product and process technologies on an ongoing basis.