INTERMEDIATION FOR UNIVERSITY-RURAL INDUSTRY TECHNOLOGY DIFFUSION AND USER INNOVATION IN A DEVELOPING ECONOMY: A SOCIAL LEARNING PERSPECTIVE

摘要

This paper explores the role academic related/third sector research centres can play as intermediaries in the appropriation and adaptation of new technologies. Focus is on the intermediation process that facilitates user innovation and the linkage between user innovation and supply side activities. The paper extends previous work that maps out different intermediation arrangements. It scrutinises how intermediation processes related to innofusion can be effected amongst recipients of technology by using situated learning theory as an analytical lens. CREPIC (translated as Production and Innovation Regional Centre) - a research and consultancy third sector organisation in the Cauca region of Colombia - is used as an exemplar case to illustrate the constituent elements of such an intermediation activity within the context of a small-scale, fish farming industry. The types of technologies adopted and further developed by a network of local fish farmers as a result of the intermediation process is discussed.