Technology commercialization can be defined simply as "the movement of
ideas from the research laboratory to the market place." In order to
meet the pressing demands of the market place, the high-tech corporation needs
to be engaged in continuous product development, upgrading its present product
line and preparing for the timely launching of new successor technology.
The extensive research of the IC2 Institute
in the area of technology transfer and commercialization is dedicated to helping
corporations and organizations build upon and improve product development and
marketing practices. Key "lab-to-market" strategies include science
and technology assessment, virtual and global teaming, intellectual property
concerns and university-based technology transfer.
Dr.
Thore was part of an academic team that since the late 1970s has explored the
process of commercialization of high technology, originally as a purely academic
exercise but eventually also in practice, operating a successful business
incubator in Austin and promoting the commercialization of technology in Texas.
The IC2 Institute
(Innovation, Creativity and Capital) at the The University of Texas.
During a twenty-five year period, IC2
came to be instrumental in the conversion of the Austin economy to the high tech
age. The Institute's activities span the range of the technology transfer and
commercialization process, from the development and dissemination of new
knowledge to the actual running of business incubators.
Read more about
the IC2 Institute:
 |
IMPACT:
How IC2 Institute Research Affects Public Policy and Business Practices,
A Volume Honoring George Kozmetsky's
Receipt of the National Medal of Technology,
ed. W.W. Cooper, S. Thore, D.
Gibson and F. Phillips, Quorom Books, Westport, Conn. 1997. |
From the book cover: "IC2
(Innovation, Creativity & Capital) Institute is a research institute active
in developing programs in a variety of areas...This book examines strategies and
applications developed ... The book is divided into three sections: the first
examines new programs being developed by IC2, the second looks at new
methodologies, and the third reviews new science. The research topics covered
point to potential ways of transferring technology to bring such research into
practical use.
Excerpts from the Preface to the
book: "In September 1993, George
Kozmetsky, founding director and current chairman of the board, IC2
Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, received the National Medal of
Technology from President Clinton ... The citation celebrates Dr. Kozmetsky's
'commercialization of various technologies through the establishment and
development of more than 100 technology-based companies that employ tens of
thousands of people and export over one billion dollars world wide.' ...The
editors of the present volume believed that the recognition provided by the
Presidential Award of the National Medal of Technology provided an appropriate
occasion for [a] volume in honor of George Kozmetsky. For this purpose
they decided to focus on the activities of the IC2 Institute Endowed
Fellows, who were invited to contribute to this volume. Each of the contributed
chapters is based on the authors' own research or educational activities and
each is accompanies by a summary indicating relevance for the public and private
sectors...."
Commercialization
Facilitators
During the long economic upswing of the
1980s and 1990s, new organizational forms and new practices appeared, promoting
and mediating the transfer of new technology from lab to market. They included
business incubators, technology parks, venture capital firms, operators
specializing in mergers and acquisitions, venture funds, and initial public
offerings (IPOs) on the stock market. Refer to the following recent study:
| Sten
Thore and Robert Ronstadt: "The Growth of
Commercialization-Accelerating Organizations and Practices: A Schumpeterian
Perspective," paper presented at the Ninth biannual conference of the
International Joseph A, Schumpeter Society, Gainesville, Florida, March 2002,
published in Entrepreneurship, the New
Economy and Public Policy: Schumpeterian
Perspectives, editors U. Cantner, E.
Dinopoulos and R.F.Lanzillotti, Springer, Berlin and New York 2005
|
From the Abstract:
"During the long economic upswing of the 1980s and 1990s, the
successful commercialization of new technology went together with
the appearance of new organizational forms and new practices
promoting and facilitating the transfer of the new technology from
lab to market. They included business incubators, technology parks,
venture capitalist firms. Commercialization-accelerating
organizations like these are themselves born by dynamic processes in
a capitalist economy that can be analyzed in Schumpeterian terms. We
discuss a unique university-based institution that has an impressive
track record of creating and operating new accelerating models: the
IC2 Institute of the University of Texas."
To download
this paper, click here.
Analytical methods for
Evaluating the Use and Implementation of Technical Innovation.
Corporations need a mechanism for evaluating and
ranking both proposed new projects and projects currently under
development. The mathematical technique of data
envelopment analysis (DEA) makes it possible to rank units (such as
corporations) or projects (such as investment projects or R&D projects) when
there is more than one ranking criterion. Ranking the performance of R&D
projects, it thus permits the assessment of financial factors such as cash flow and
strategic factors at the same time.
DEA evaluates the expected performance of
each R&D project in relation to the "cutting edge" or
"frontier" as defined by the best-performing projects of the company.
Carried out quarterly or yearly, these calculations will provide a current
check-up on the performance of each project as it advances through the R&D
process. In particular, it may assist in identifying promising projects that
should be considered for enhanced funding, and in identifying project laggards
that are candidates for termination.
A book-length study:
|
TECHNOLOGY
COMMERCIALIZATION: DEA and Related Analytical Methods for Evaluating the Use
and Implementation of Technical Innovation. Kluwer Academic Publishers,
Boston/Dordrecht/London 2002. |
The practical applications described in the book include
- - the ranking of R&D
projects by a Texas company manufacturing high tech oil drilling equipment
- - the rating of NASA aeronautics investments -
- the evaluation of advanced new technology in a large international
telecommunications company - - the rating of energy projects proposals in
Taiwan - - the evaluation of university research in the Netherlands - - an
examination of initial public offerings on the Madrid stock exchange - -
gauging the environmental consequences of technology choices in the Portuguese
bottled water industry and in the copying machine industry in the UK - -
To read more about this volume,
and for a complete listing of contributors and contents, click
here.
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