E‐Government Technology Transfer: A Case Study of the Implementation of a European Patent Management System in Brazil
| Author | Luiz Antonio Joia,Gabriel Marcuzzo do Canto Cavalheiro |
| Date | 01 August 2016 |
| Published date | 01 August 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1753 |
E-GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER: A CASE STUDY OF THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF A EUROPEAN PATENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
IN BRAZIL
GABRIEL MARCUZZO DO CANTO CAVALHEIRO
1
*AND LUIZ ANTONIO JOIA
2
1
Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil
2
Getulio VargasFoundation, Brazil
SUMMARY
In order to bolster the emerging but still underdeveloped conceptualization of e-government technology transfer, we examine
the implementation of a European Patent Management System in Brazil. The case study provided in this article offers opportu-
nities to improve understanding on technical and organizational issues associated with e-government technology transfer. Our
findings provide evidence that the transfer of e-government technology from a European to a Brazilian context requires multiple
adaptations of the original design, intensive learning on the side of the recipient organization, and flexible implementation plans.
Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
key words—e-government; technology transfer; information systems; patent management systems; developing countries
INTRODUCTION
Patent offices are becoming essential public institutions in supporting enterprise value creation in the current
knowledge-based economy. Increasingly, intangible resources are replacing tangible resources as the primary
assets of innovative companies (Lall, 2003). Consequently, as the value of companies has been increasingly
determined by their ability to innovate, the protection of intellectual property rights has become absolutely
paramount (Drahos, 2010). Therefore, because the patent office enables the protection of new technologies through
patents, this type of public institution is subject to increasing pressure from patent applicants to improve service
provision.
Alongside the increasing importance of patent offices in the current knowledge-based economy, another trend of
central importance to this study regards the growing dependence of our society on information and communication
technologies (ICTs). In fact, advances in ICTs are central to the process of socioeconomic changes and develop-
ment (Heeks, 2002a, 2002b). In this way, ICTs have been largely used in the public sector for more than 50 years.
However, the advent of the Internet has given this usage a new name—e-government—and it has also accelerated
the diffusion of e-government applications worldwide (Heeks, 2004).
Nevertheless, significant variations can be observed with respect to the maturity levels of e-government practices
in developed and developing countries. As a consequence of this operational gap, extant literature recognizes the
increasing potential of collaboration as a means of reducing this gap (Heeks, 2002a, 2002b; Nhampossa, 2005; Chen
et al., 2006; Stanforth, 2006). Essentially, the maturity level of ICT in developing countries is often low (Heeks,
2004). Consequently, how to internalize an organization’s external e-government technology and create value out
of it has become a crucial issue to government bodies of developing countries (Heeks and Stanforth, 2014).
*Correspondence to: G. M.D. C. Cavalheiro, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Department of Entrepreneurship and Management, Niteroi, RJ,
Brazil. E-mail: gabmcc@fgvmail.br
public administration and development
Public Admin. Dev. 36, 215–231 (2016)
Published online 1 April 2016 in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pad.1753
Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
To date, various developing countries throughout the world, such as Brazil, Malaysia, Pakistan, Colombia,
Mexico, Vietnam, Uruguay, and Morocco are in the process of carrying out e-government technology transfer
(TT) programs to strengthen their patent office operations. However, despite the growing importance of patent
offices, the extant literature has been largely silent on e-government TT involving this type of institution. To this
end, the phenomenon of e-government TT involving patent office institutions of developing and developed
countries seemed to us to be sufficiently understudied to merit investigation.
Then, this study addresses the previously mentioned research need by addressing the specific topic of
e-government TT in one particular area of public sector activity in Brazil, namely, that of patent office. Fundamen-
tally, this study presents a longitudinal analysis of an e-government TT project over a period of 11 years from early
2003 to the first semester of 2013. More specifically, we apply the e-government transfer model (ETM), proposed
by Cavalheiro and Joia (2014) as our theoretical lens to examine a technical cooperation project involving the trans-
fer of a patent management system (PMS) from the European Patent Office (EPO) to the Brazilian Patent Office,
which is locally called Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI). In essence, ETM is a conceptual model
designed to describe the e-government TT process from developed to developing countries from the perspective of
the recipient organization. The purpose of this article is, thus, twofold. On the one hand, our study is aimed at
testing the ETM frame. On the other hand, we also intend to provide a better understanding of e-government TT
by examining the transfer of a PMS from Europe to Brazil.
The article is structured as follows. After this introduction, in the Literature Review Section, e-government TT is
presented in order to contextualize and discuss the ETM. Then, the Research Method Section describes the research
method used. Following this, the Case Study: Understanding theEPTOS Project via the Government Transfer Model
Section examinesthe implementation of the PMS, namedEuropean Patent and Trademark OfficeSystem (EPTOS), in
Brazil throughthe lens of the ETM framework. Subsequently,in the Analysis Section, our findingsare then presented
and related to prior literature. Finally, in the Conclusion Section, the articleconcludes setting forth the lessons learned,
the managerial and academic implications accrued from this study, and recommendations for further research.
LITERATURE REVIEW
This section presents a literature review on e-government TT, in order to contextualize this research field. In
addition, the ETM, which is our theoretical lens for this study, is also presented and discussed.
E-government
To provide a conceptual grounding for understanding e-government initiatives, this section discusses the basic
attributes associated with this phenomenon. Essentially, e-government addresses the relationship (transaction)
between the public administration and the citizen (customer) (Bellamy and Taylor, 1994). According to Bekkers
and Homburg (2007), e-government concerns the transformation of government administration, information provi-
sion, and service delivery by the application of new technologies. Stanforth (2006), in turn, considers e-government
as a socio-technical arena within which ICTs are being applied to organize public management. Moreover, Chen
et al. (2006) defines e-government as “a cost-effective solution that improves communication between government
agencies and their constituents by providing access to information and services online”[p. 24].
Despite these generic definitions of e-government, the concept is continually subject to change. Heeks (2006)
claims that, over the past decades, e-government initiatives involved two stages. The first stage addressed informa-
tion dissemination phase in which governments catalogued information for public use. The second phase
concerned transaction-based e-government (e-service delivery). Examples of the first phase include online forms
for social security benefit applications and patent applications, while examples of the second phase include paying
taxes online and integrating government data. Beyond these two traditional stages, a third stage is rapidly gaining
importance. This new third stage consists of e-feedback and e-participation (Ciborra, 2003; Linders, 2012;
Wijnhoven et al., 2015).
216 G. M. D. C. CAVALHEIRO AND L. A. JOIA
Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Public Admin. Dev. 36, 215–231 (2016)
DOI: 10.1002/pad
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