Commercialization of high technologies refers to a process that transforms radical and disruptive innovations into consumable products, services and solution packages. This process generates returns on research and development investments, employs highly educated people, empowers semi-skilled persons and makes business enterprises prosperous and sustainable. Hence, this study investigated the commercialization process purposely to provide in-depth knowledge of it. The study aimed to investigate how high technologies are commercialized, especially in ICT, Cleantech and the Life Sciences industries to provide a better understanding of the commercialization process. This understanding is essential due to the increase in new high technologies and rapid changes in these industries.

The study employed a case study research method to achieve its goal. It used interviews, an online survey, observations and documentary for data collection, and content and thematic methods for data analysis. It used primary and secondary data that were collected between 2012 and 2017. Its participants represented stakeholders of the above-mentioned industries. The participants mostly came from Finland, but some came from other European countries.

The study found that the commercialization process models are rooted in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), Stage-gate, Effectuation, Bricolage and Lean Start-up theoretical frameworks. Similarly, it found that the process makes use of a mixture of linear and non-linear logic. Additionally, it found that the commercialization process starts during the pre-innovation phase and continues after the innovation’s marketing phase, and that commercialization activities must be performed in parallel (simultaneously). Most interestingly, the study revealed that digitalization has changes on the commercialization process.

Based on the findings, the study proposed a new model for commercializing high technologies in the above-mentioned industries; a framework termed the “Integrative Commercialization Process” (ICP). The model was built on theories, theoretical frameworks and models of the innovation process, New Product Development (NPD), Entrepreneurship, Spinoff, Transfer of Technology (TOT) and Marketing. Similarly, the model was built on the context of ICT, Cleantech and the Life Sciences. Hence, the study offered insights into the theoretical frameworks of the innovation, the NPD, Spinoff and marketing fields. Furthermore, the study provided practical insight for the stakeholders of the aforementioned industries, especially potential entrepreneurs (e.g., scientists and engineers), technology entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship educators, commercialization practitioners, universities and research institutes and companies. Therefore, this study makes contributions to the theory and practice of commercialization.

The sociocultural conception of man sees a person as the product of his or her environment. Whereas the biological conception of man stresses genetic heritance and the cognitive conception of man prioritises internal cognitive functions and information processing, the sociocultural conception of man focusses on the environmental and cultural factors. From their very birth, human beings begin to interact with their environment, first through the main senses, but later through language, texts and other kinds of media, as well as the communities and subcommunities that they participate in. All these interactions shape their thinking, including the language and communication methods that they learn. And because everyone even in the same culture has different kinds of experiences, we all shape up to become our own kinds of individuals.

Commercialization Skills: Necessity for High Technology Entrepreneurs in Digital Age, In: Arai K., Bhatia R., Kapoor S. (Eds) Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2018. FTC 2018.

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 881: 965-975

This article examines how digitalization influences the commercialization of high technologies in the life sciences industry. It is based on a cross-case study focused on pharmaceutical, medical device, and e-health companies in Finland. Both company representatives and regional stakeholders were interviewed. The findings suggest that “digitalization” needs to be distinguished from “digitization” because both terms seem to be misused or used interchangeably. The findings also show that digitalization led to a concurrent implementation of commercialization processes. Furthermore, the findings revealed that digitalization posit- ively influenced commercialization activities, especially information sourcing and management, various assessments, and official activities, big data creation, and activity routinization. It was also revealed that the creation of new sets of big data and fear of digital attacks are negative influences on digitalization. These findings make a theoretical contribution to the discourses on digitalization and commercialization, but they also provide insights for scientists, engineers, and life science companies.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has fundamentally transformed business transactions. While its uses have become ubiquitous in the advanced economies, emerging and developing economies are still struggling with the mode and manner of the deployment of ICT for business. Thus, this study seeks to investigate how small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) utilize ICT in Nigeria for business internationalization. To achieve the goal of the study, a mixed‐method was employed. A questionnaire was administered to 265 people consisting of SMEs staff, managers, and owners. Similarly, interviews were conducted with seven SME decision makers. Findings revealed that Nigerian SMEs used ICT tools, such as websites and social media platforms, for internationalization. The findings also revealed that the challenges of ICT did not affect its application by these SMEs, which contrasts with many previous studies. Furthermore, this study identified privacy concerns, internet problems, cyber insecurity, trust, and system anxiety as new challenges facing the application of ICT tools by SMEs. Similarly, the findings showed that lack of ICT competence and strategic focus of ICT applications are internal problems facing Nigerian SMEs. These findings provide insight for practitioners and academia on the internationalization of Nigeria SMEs and the application of ICT to promote business growth.

Commercializing high technologies is expensive, tedious, and resource intensive. Meanwhile, there is a need for quick diffusion of innovations due to economic pressures for companies and research institutes. Therefore, this article proposes a new framework: lean commercialization. The framework represents a transformation of new technology and knowledge to products and services through the application of the lean/agile methodology. This methodology focuses on how resources can be minimized during the development, manufacturing, and marketing of new products and services, while still being accepted by customers. The lean commercialization framework was developed from a case study of high-technology companies and by interviewing commercialization experts. This article contributes to the theory and practice of commercialization of high technologies and provides a procedure for the practical application of the lean commercialization framework.

It is essential to have mutual understanding of theories, because their theoretical and contemporary uses change over time. Thus, this paper examines theoretical and contemporary uses of Bricolage theory in entrepreneurship studies. In doing so, it reviews scholarly articles on the theory through a documentary analysis method. Its findings showed that Bricolage was used across different fields of study. The findings also showed that there are differences between original and contemporary uses of the theory. Similarly, there is change in contextual meaning of the theory.

Furthermore, it was noted that the theory was applied to different entrepreneurial phenomena, except certain contexts like entrepreneurial process, entrepreneurship education, and digitalization. This paper makes theoretical contribution by outlining key assumptions of Bricolage and its contextual meanings. It also provides insight for scholars and areas for further research.

Lean Commercialization: A New Dawn for Commercializing High Technologies. Paper presented at “The ICRIC 2018: 20th International Conference on Research, Innovation and Commercialisation” Montreal, Canada on May 24 -25, 2018.

Commercialization method is a means to make inventions available at the market for final consumption. It is described as an important tool for keeping business enterprises sustainable and improving national economic growth. Thus, there are several scholarly publications on it, either presenting or testing different methods for commercialization. However, young entrepreneurs, technologists and scientists would like to know the best method to commercialize their innovations. Then, this question arises: What is the best commercialization method? To answer the question, a systematic literature review was conducted, and practitioners were interviewed. The literary results revealed that there are many methods but new methods are needed to improve commercialization especially during these times of economic crisis and political uncertainty. Similarly, the empirical results showed there are several methods, but the best method is the one that reduces costs, reduces the risks associated with uncertainty, and improves customer participation and acceptability. Therefore, it was concluded that new commercialization method is essential for today’s high technologies and a method was presented.

This article examines commercialization process of a high technology, which is characterized by a high level of research and development activities, resources-intensive and added values. The article employed a case study approach, by observing a Finnish University Spin-off between 2013 and 2016 and making use of documentary method. In contrary to many previous studies, the findings of the article showed that the spin-off process does not necessarily to be stage-based and has to be flexible. The findings also revealed the factors responsible for successful commercialization. Similarly, the findings pinpointed that “plan is always a plan” and that plan would change during the spin-off creation process. These findings provide an indepth knowledge for commercialization practitioners, technology entrepreneurship educators, potential entrepreneurs (engineers and scientists) and business enterprises. Therefore, this article contributes to discourse of spin-off, commercialization, technology transfer and academic and university entrepreneurship.

Presently, there is a need for development of new companies and growth of existing enterprises. Likewise, there is an academic interest in Lean start-up concept. Hence, this paper investigates how potential entrepreneurs, small business owners and innovators can test and commercialise their business ideas by applying the Lean start-up technique. The main goals of this paper are to present the application of the Lean start-up method in real-life situations and show how the method can be applied by the entrepreneurs. Four small companies were observed for 3 to 5 months and five serial entrepreneurs were interviewed. Similarly, 18 best Finnish start-ups (in 2014) were surveyed. The research results showed that the technique can be used for idea and innovation testing. It was revealed that the technique could be applied to different industries though it was more applicable to technological oriented industries. Similarly, it was noted that the stages of applying the technique depend on the nature and type of product or service, the stage of start-up development and the type of start-up team. Application processes of the technique were summarised and a new process was developed. One of the authors applied the new process and it was proved that the technique could be used to commercialise business ideas.

It is widely known that entrepreneurship plays a crucial role within the economy. As the African economy needs rapid development and growth, this paper investigates the present attitude of African youth towards new business creation and entrepreneurship. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used, and 204 people participated in the study. The participants were accessed via social media such as Facebook (pages and groups), LinkedIn (groups), Twitter, and WhatsApp. The results reveal that African youth have positive attitudes and that they are entrepreneurially active and ready to take risks, provided that they can be self-dependent. Similarly, the results show that entrepreneurship education is much needed to improve innovative start-ups in Africa.

This article examines the challenges in commercializing high technologies successfully and sustainably using quantum key distribution (QKD) technology as a case study. Quantum communication is increasingly relevant to cybersecurity and nanotechnology, which will replace current technologies and change the way we live. To understand how such high technology could be successfully commercialized, we interviewed individuals from four metrology institutions and two international companies. The result revealed that scattered and small markets, supply chain development, technology validation/certification, a lack of available or adequate infrastructure, and after-sales services are the most serious challenges facing successful commercialization of quantum communication technology. To validate these challenges, we conducted a survey of 60 experts, 49 of whom agreed that above-mentioned factors could affect the commercialization success of QKD technology. Likewise, the survey revealed that technical development, customer orientation/awareness, and government regulations could also hinder the commercialization of QKD technology.

Building a Sustainable Start-up? Factors to be considered during the Technology Commercialization Process, Journal of Advanced Research in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation, 1 (1): 4-19.

Network has drawn attention from different fields and its contributions on the businesses have been discussed;
however, Hite and Hesterly (2001) propose that it is significant for companies to change from closed networks to dispersed networks as the firm grows. Similarly, scholars argue that firm network, development and resources are “co-evolved”. These authors further state that changing of networks are affected by (a) individual difference of entrepreneurs, (b) industrial differences for resources, and (c) difference in the compositional quality. Thus, this paper tests their propositions to see “why” it is essential to change networks and to pinpoint “what”, “when” and “how” the necessity is needed in the formation and development of New Technology Based Firms (NTBFs). To achieve the objectives, four case studies are developed and the empirical results show that the origin of firm network determines the necessity for changing networks, the quality of network member affects the changes but individual difference of technology-based entrepreneur may or may not affect the changes.

Currently, there are numerous scholarly articles on the succession but it is surprising that no or
few papers have discussed the awareness of succession and its impacts. Therefore, this study focused on the
awareness of the family business owners, the attitude of the owners towards intra-succession as means of
business continuity, and how their awareness relate to their preparation for the ownership succession and the
continuity of their business. To achieve these, 17 owners were interviewed with different backgrounds, lines of
business and generations of Family Business (FB), though they all live in Finland. Interestingly, the results
revealed that the awareness relates to succession preparation and the business continuity.

Currently, there are several papers on the New Technology Based Firms (NTBFs) yet the case studies of measurement technology appear to not be available. This work aims to present the entrepreneurial processes of Finnish measurement technology firms. Eight interviews were conducted with the key players of the industry. Successfully, the outcomes of the study revealed that there are five interconnected and interactive phases for new technology commercialization; they are not static and they are continuous in a circular mode. Likewise, there are two facilitators – networking and market potential which serve as linked pins for the identified stages. Furthermore, financing, research and development (R&D), government supports and the entrepreneurship issues were found to be highly relevant for NTBFs. Most importantly, this study presents a new model, which can be adopted by technology entrepreneurs for their invention valorizations.

Innovation is a core competency for almost all companies and organizations. Innovation is a set of processes and activities, which starts from idea generation and is followed by research and development and finally the successful commercialization of a product or idea. Thus, managing innovation processes is a very challenging and complex task for organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to enable organizations to understand the innovation process by comparing different models of innovation processes in theory and practice. In addition, this study highlights the new model for developing entrepreneur, new product and/or new company. The study was carried out through secondary data. The required information was mainly collected through company accounts, online databases, textbooks, journals, press, and directories. Innovation and new product development process models were analyzed with the help of available information from innovation and incubation centers. At the end, new model was developed. This model gives better understanding of innovation process for developing entrepreneur, new product and new company.

Lambert Academic Publishing

ISBN: 978-38433-9311-9

As world is experiencing climate change now, each nation is taking up concrete steps to tackle it. The use of renewable energies and efficiency of energy consumption are among the steps. Therefore, this research concentrates on the renewable energies. The main aim of the study is to provide market and supply chain information on the proposed technology termed “Remote Energy Monitor with Wireless Sensor Networks – REMSEN” and to analyze the possible added values that REMSEN will provide for the supply chain players. Three renewable energy sources were considered: Wind, Solar and Biomass. All supply chain activities and the key supply chain players were analyzed. Furthermore, REMSEN technology, its technological framework and its impacts on the renewable energy supply chain were described. Thus, this book shows how the proposed technology can improve the renewable energies, and its potentials.

Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany

ISBN: 978-38383-6031-7