Author Description

Effective transferring technology into developing countries with a narrow industrial basis is one of the problems of our time. In history, many countries attempted to solve this problem. The transfer of electrical technology to Finland is a case study which presents an extraordinary but still successful solution. The book aims to answer to two questions. Firstly, it provides an explanation why electrification proceeded in Finland at least as rapidly as the average for European economies although the country was an overwhelmingly agricultural economy. Secondly, it shows how Finland was able to develop on the basis of this new technology without losing national control of the process. The country relied in the transfer of electrical technology mainly on transfer channels other than direct foreign investments and thrived. Finland had enough engineers, skilled workers, indigenous know-how, and entrepeneurial ability to develop its electricity supply industry without excessive foreign involvement. This sharply contradicts a common conviction on the essential role of multi-national companies in technology transfer.