An analysis of the process from innovation to commercialization: a South African perspective

[摘要] English: Economies, organizations (small, medium and large) and individuals must discover and commercialize new products in order to compete and prosper in the 21st century global economy. The importance of introducing new products to the market can be seen in the fact that it builds a sustainable competitive advantage for economies, organizations and individuals. Furthermore, these new products do not only lead to profits for individuals and organizations, but it also improves the quality of life of all individuals and generate further economic opportunities. Through the commercialization of innovation, the gap between the needs of the market and the inventions which innovators have can be bridged. However, it remains a key challenge to all innovators to take an invention from the idea phase to the market in order to produce economic returns. Ideas or inventions cannot generate economic returns for the innovator. It is only once the invention is successfully absorbed into the marketplace that the inventor can benefit from its profit, and therefore the importance of commercializing inventions is highlighted. Globally the failure rates of new products are especially high, preventing innovators from gaining financial benefits. New product failure rates are estimated at between 50-80% and even major companies with sufficient resources struggle with the commercialization of inventions. The high failure rates of inventions can be attributed to a wide variety of factors, including limited access to resources, failure of innovators to sufficiently protect their inventions or weak marketing efforts, among others. One such reason for failure, however, is the fact that innovators are unsure about the steps to follow in commercializing an invention. Innovators either take false steps and waste valuable time, or they leave out critical steps in the process. It is important for innovators to know whatthe steps in the commercialization process are and to follow them, in order to ensure that they follow a logical process; plan for all the important aspects regarding commercialization and are aware of what will be required of them at the different stages in the process. South Africa is not doing well in bringing new research discoveries to the market and there may be many reasons for this problem. In order to introduce new inventions to the market successfully through commercialization, it is important to know what the problems/barriers are that innovators experience during the commercialization process. It is also important to identify the need for a common framework understood by government, higher education, research councils, technology organizations and venture capital to help identify roles and functional relationships in the system of innovation. This study aimed to acquire information regarding the problems and/or barriers confronting entrepreneurs in the commercialization process, by determining how successful individuals and SMMEs were in commercializing their innovation. The client base of the Centrum for Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing (CRPM) and the Technology Station (PDTS) for 2005 to 2010 were used in this study. The secondary objectives were to investigate the steps the entrepreneur followed in the commercialization process; to identify the factors, both positively and negatively, that influence the commercialization of innovation; to determine the problems/mistakes that entrepreneurs made in the commercialization process; and to determine the success factors for entrepreneurs in the commercialization process. The results showed that the minority of the respondents (20%) managed to commercialize their inventions successfully. The remaining 80% of the respondents were either still busy moving through the commercialization process or had become stagnant. Furthermore, the results indicated that the typical innovator does not follow the chronological order of the steps in the commercial process, as indicated in the literature. Many of the steps in the commercialization process were not completed as thoroughly as needed and some of the steps were omitted completely. The reasons most often cited by the respondents for their lack of progress and/or stagnation in the commercialization process are a lack of funds and a lack of support. In other words, the respondents did not have sufficient capital to commercialize the invention on their own and either did not know where to go to obtain the financial aid needed or were not successful in their application for funding. The lack of support the respondents referred to include support in terms of knowledge regarding the commercialization process, i.e. what each step in the commercialization process entails as well as what should be done next in the commercialization process. These two reasons were the most often cited barriers to the successful commercialization of the respondents. Several recommendations are made at the end of this study that could bridge the abovementioned barriers. The focus falls mainly on the Government, and various recommendations regarding government support institutions are made that could better aid innovators through the commercialization process.

[发布机构] University of the Free State