Effective Components in the Transfer of Knowledge-Based Technologies with an Emphasis on Professional Ethics in the Automotive Industry

Technology transfer is a process that causes the formation of a technology flow from the owner of knowledge as a source to the beneficiary of knowledge as a receiver. In this process, compliance with the principles of professional ethics plays an important role. With the understanding of this importance, the present research was conducted with the aim of explaining the effective components in the transfer of knowledge-based technologies with emphasis on professional ethics in the automobile industry.

The research method was mixed (qualitative-quantitative), in the qualitative part, the qualitative content analysis method was used with an inductive approach and in the quantitative section, and the descriptive-survey method was used. The participants in the qualitative section were automotive industry experts, and the statistical population in the quantitative section included engineering experts working in Iran's automobile industry from Iran Khodro, Saipa and Pars Khodro companies. The sampling method was used in the qualitative section with 10 people in terms of the theoretical type, and in the quantitative section, it was a stratified random sampling which 138 people were selected as a statistical sample for study. The research data collection tool was in the qualitative section a semi-structured interview and in the quantitative section a researcher-made questionnaire. Validity and reliability of research data collection tools were confirmed, data analysis was done through fuzzy Delphi analysis and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in AHP, Amos software.

The results show the components of effective professional ethics in the transfer of knowledge-based technologies in the automotive industry, includes soft technology futures, hard technology futures, political ethics, economic ethics, social ethics and environmental ethics.

Compliance with professional ethics can be considered as a strategy for the transfer of knowledge-based technologies in the automotive industry.