The contradiction in strategic research programmes : Support established processes or nurture new product ideas, or do both?

• The path between science and innovation is not yet fully mapped. The path is not linear from the discovery of a research finding, to the creation of a technology, and to the market introduction of a physical product, service or process based on scientific findings. Instead, innovation, technology, and science interact. The actors, i.e. the scientist, the engineer, and the entrepreneur or the intrapreneur, are involved in processes facilitated by social networks. The objective of this paper is to explore and explain critical issues for technology transfer and commercialization from a university research programme. Findings are based on a longitudinal in-depth case study of a Swedish university research programme in microelectronics, Eproper. The conclusions of this article are: a) the actors involved in the start of a research programme influence the social network for the whole programme b) there are two different rationales of developing research results: the academic loop and the commercial loop, and c) different sets of skills are needed to license a technology or to build a new venture.

Nyckelord

Research programme

knowledge transfer

technology transfer

and commercialization

TECHNOLOGY

TEKNIKVETENSKAP

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)