Overcoming the pitfalls in external technology commercialisation: a managerial guide

Abstract

Attempts at a universally applicable set of guidelines for implementing external technology commercialisation (ETC) have remained too general or have not met practical acceptance and adoption in the business world. Measures grounded in the actual experience of a single company aiming for specific solutions for its individual problems is seen as a more effective if not the only way to facilitate successful ETC implementation. This in turn has led to the emergence of several superficial case studies that fail to make a wider theoretical impact. Hence, the question: How should companies implement the external technology commercialisation process? Our study reports on the in-depth case research encompassing the phases of problem elicitation, guideline development and implementation. In the case company the most prominent problems with ETC boiled down to three issues of strategic disconnect of ETC process and target setting, internal communication challenges and ‘victim of fashion’ problem – adoption of open innovation more for public innovation image than for necessity. Identification of ETC problems and their locus allowed us to arrive at three scenarios of possible ETC process: technology push, managerial push and market pull.