مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

 مجله امگا – Omega

The development of modern technologies has created gaps between technologies used for civilian life purposes and military applications. Technologies that civilians use in the daily life (e.g., global positioning system and the Internet) are initially developed and applied for the purpose of national defense. In other words, the driving force prompting developments in the emerging industries such as the information and communications technology (ICT) and semi-conductor industries is the development of technologies in military. Overall, this trend leads to the development of dual-use technologies, i.e. technologies for civilians and militaries.

According to an analysis conducted by Benoit [1], a U.S. national defense economist, at least 40 percent of successful military technologies contribute in improving people’s economic wellbeing. Specifically, military technologies are able to enhance a country’s security and the overall national economy [2-4]. By incorporating military technologies into the private industries, countries not only transfer military innovations or inventions to civilian livelihood that create incomes, but also help upgrade technologies in the private industries, which in turn actively participate in the construction of national defense.

Because of limited budgets and resources, governments of various countries would stringently review the use of defense expenditures and actively conduct performance evaluation. For example, the United States announced the Government Performance and Results Act in 1993, stipulating that public departments (including institutions involved in the research and development (R&D) of technologies) must assess their performance; in 1997, Japan approved the Practical Guide to the Evaluation of National R&D, which serves as the basic architecture of technology evaluation, and proposes that technologies should be evaluated based on their level of importance. However, adopting traditional financial reports to measure the efficiency of implementing a dual-use technology development program (DuTDP) will cause evaluators to overlook external benefits. Note that resource allocation and long-term development of the social economy are dependent on the performance of DuTDPs. If the direct benefits for R&D institutions (e.g., academic and technological outcomes and R&D revenues) and indirect benefits for the social economy (e.g., the number of technology transfer, the output value generated from investments, and the number of treasury transfers produced by R&D results) are considered in assessing performance, the actual performance of DuTDPs can be more accurately assessed.