Developing a Ready-to-Commercialize-Technologies identification Institutional Model

Abstract

Universities and research organizations ofthe kind working under the technology push perspective are facing the challenge of selecting technologies, already at their mature stage, to be transferred to the user by commercialization efforts. In the marketing field language, this action is translated as looking a proper customer for the product insertion in a market. Being technology marketing a new function to be operated, these institutions require the definition of selection criteria and commercialization rules in order to build an operational platform for this activities which involves researchers, managers, institutional officers and agents, as well as regulatory frameworks such as copyright ownership, taxes and ownership transfer contraction. From the buyer perspective, acquiring technology solutions, resulted from research and development activities, becomes of key importance to add to the collection of resources inside an administrative framework, that enables a finn to gain competitive advantage (Resource View Theory), considering that it is the particular combination of resources that leads to better performance when contrasted with rivals. The combination of this externa! environment faced by the Research and Development institution (R&DI) and interna! organizational resources both influence their strategy, its missions and goals and how it plans to achieve them. This directly influences the structure, as the lines of authority, communication and information flow adapt to changes in strategy (Contingency Theory). Upon this theoretical framework, a structured institutional Technology ommercialization Readiness Identification Model is described in this paper, explaining its components, stages and operational flows defined to articulate activities, roles and functions of the different actors involved in the commercialization process of technology and innovation research results. In this paper the model is presented from the technology provider being under development research activities to support analysis based on the buyer's point ofview.