Narrating commercialisation: Swedish university researchers and outreach

This paper is a qualitative study of commercialisation activities in Swedish universities from the perspective of researchers. Our goal is twofold: (i) to elucidate researchers’ understanding of the meaning of concept of commercialisation and (ii) their reasons for engaging in this activity. By providing insight into researchers understanding and rationale for engaging in commercialisation activities, we hope to contribute to deepening understanding of commercialisation and ultimately improving practice. Our findings are that there is a significant amount of activity with respect commercialisation of research taking place within the Swedish universities studied. We found that contrary to the received view which has it that the social sciences and the humanities are also involved in commercialisation activities although researchers in this part of the academy rarely reported themselves as engaging in the commercialisation. We also found that regardless of disciplinary background, firm formation is the aspect of commercialisation to which researchers are most ambivalent.Commercialisation, humanities, social science, firm formation, third stream, outreach

Commercialisation of research results – cooperation between science and business

When analysing the term commercialisation one should answer the crucial question: what mechanisms govern commercialisation of knowledge and technology as well as which resources and sources determine it. The article presents a theoretical deliberation concerning the development of issues related to the commercialisation of research results in the last century. A review of literature precedes the section on sources for the commercialisation of knowledge and technologies when considering research results and technology providers. The author claims that analysis of technological resources also determines the possibilities for the cooperation between science and business. It is important for the selection of the commercialisation strategy to describe technological resources and their complementarity. Strong technological resources and their market availability ensures independent technological development. However, a lack of technological resources or the chance to acquire them encourages an innovative organisation to pass know-how or technologies to another, capable organisation which is willing to commercialise this knowledge on the market. Frequently however when commercialising research results, organisations establish cooperation on the market in order to build resources to implement research results. This article, ‘Commercialisation of research results – cooperation between science and business’, is concluded with an example depicting the cooperation between scientists and business people in a new spin-off company set up in order to build technological resources and the market implementation of a device for measuring the structure of soft material surfaces.Article has been prepared based on Polish National Scientific Agency project - DEC-2011/01/B/HS4/05200. (Powstanie artykuł zostało sfinansowane ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki przyznanych na podstawie decyzji numer DEC-2011/01/B/HS4/05200”) Preparation and printing funded by the National Agency for Research and Development under project “Kreator Innowacyjności – wparcie dla Przedsiębiorczości akademickiej

Commercialisation and Poverty in Tanzania: Household-level Analysis

Data from a recent Tanzanian household survey are used to investigate households’ connectedness to market economy i.e. commercialisation. The study puts emphasis on facilitating access to the nearest markets and market information as means to enhance commercialisation. Commercialisation and total consumption are found to be highly correlated and mutually reinforcing. The more commercialised the household is, the higher probability it has to be well off and thus enhanced commercialisation should be encouraged as a way to increase households’ welfare. The distance to the nearest market and the availability of market information are found to be significant factors in households’ degree of commercialisation. However, the importance of large regional fixed effects highlights the importance of the structural barriers for trade in Tanzania.commercialisation; poverty; transaction cost; household model; Tanzania

Microfinance, commercialisation and ethics

This paper discusses the so-called commercial approach to microfinance under economic and ethical aspects. It first shows how microfinance has developed from a purely welfare-oriented activity to a commercially relevant line of banking business. The background of this stunning success is the – almost universal – adoption of the so-called commercial approach to microfinance in the course of the last decade. As the author argues, this commercial approach is the only sound approach to adopt if one wanted microfinance to have any social and developmental impact, and therefore the wide-spread “moralistic” criticism of the commercial approach, which has again and again been expressed in the 1990s, is ill-placed from an economic and an ethical perspective. However, some recent events in microfinance raise doubts as to whether the commercial approach has not, in a number of cases, gone too far. The evident example for such a development is the Mexican microfinance institution Compartamos, which recently undertook a financially extremely successful IPO. As it seems, some microfinance institutions have by now become so radically commercial that all of those social and development considerations, which have traditionally motivated work in the field of microfinance, seem to have lost their importance. Thus there is a conflict between commercial and developmental aspirations. However, this conflict is not inevitable. The paper concludes by showing that, and how, a microfinance institution can try to combine using the strengths of the capital market and at the same time maintaining its developmental focus and importance

The impact of smallholder commercialisation of organic crops on food consumption patterns, dietary diversity and consumption elasticities

The impact of smallholder commercialisation on food consumption patterns in a rural community of South Africa was investigated. The dietary diversity, nutrient intakes and consumption patterns of certified, partially certified and non-members of an organic farmers’ organisation were compared. Engagement in certified commercial organic farming promoted comparatively greater dietary diversity and improved nutrient intakes. While smallholder agriculture commercialisation has the potential to improve food consumption patterns and food quality through increased income and labour opportunities, caution should be exercised before claiming that such commercialisation can alleviate food insecurity and solve hunger in rural South Africa.agriculture, growth, smallholder, consumption, nutrition, Food Security and Poverty,

Medieval property investors, ca. 1300-1500

This paper utilises a dataset of freehold land and property transactions from medieval England to highlight the growing commercialisation of the economy. By drawing on the legal records we are able to demonstrate that the medieval real estate market provided the opportunity for investors to profit. Careful analysis of the data provides evidence of group purchases, multiple transactions and investors buying outside of their own locality. The identification of these ‘investors’ and their buying behaviours, set within the context of the English medieval economy, contributes to the early commercialisation debate

Commercialisation, Factor Prices and Technological Progress in the Transition to Modern Economic Growth

We provide a model of the links between commercialisation and technological progress, which is consistent with the historical evidence and places market relations at the heart of the industrial revolution. First, commercialisation raised wages as a growing reliance on impersonal labour market transactions in place of customary relations with a high degree of monitoring led to the adoption of efficiency wages. Second, commercialisation lowered interest rates as a growing reliance on impersonal capital market transactions in place of active investor involvement in investment projects led investors to allow borrowers to keep a larger share of the profits. Third, the resulting rise in the wage/cost of capital ratio led to the adoption of a more capital-intensive technology. Fourth, this led to a faster rate of technological progress through greater learning by doing on the capital intensive production technology. Fifth, the rate of technological progress was raised further by the patent system, which allowed the commercialisation of property rights in innovations embodied in machinery.Commercialisation ; factor prices ; technological progress

The technology company development journey : from concept to commercialisation

It is widely recognised that Scotland has competitive advantage in key areas of science and technology within its research and company base. However, the nation performs relatively poorly in terms of numbers of active entrepreneurs, business start-ups and creation of high-growth technology businesses within knowledge intensive industries. Scotland needs to rapidly commercialise those technologies where there is both a strong market opportunity and an ambition to create or grow a company of scale. The Scottish Government's Economic Strategy (Scottish Government, 2011) highlights the role that commercialisation can play in contributing to economic growth and Scottish Enterprise (SE) has built a clear strategic commitment to commercialisation: developing and investing in a number of initiatives and programmes to support the conversion of science and technology based ideas into products or services which deliver value to a particular market. With the ambition of converting the country's wealth of research assets into economic assets, a better understanding of the mechanics and transitions by which technology based ideas are transformed into marketable goods and services across the 'concept to commercialisation' paradigm is key to improving success rates and economic benefits for Scotland. This paper sets out the key findings from primary research that gives a unique insight into the experience of 32 companies that have been supported by SE. The research evidence highlights the challenges involved in the commercialisation process and path to market for Scottish-based technology companies, whose origins may be existing technology businesses, university spin-outs or start-up companies, and is the first in-depth analysis of its kind in Scotland

Commercialisation of innovations from the UK National Health Service

The potential opportunities offered by developing innovative ideas from staff within the UK National Health Service (NHS) was recognised in 2000 and this paper describes a regional organisation, Medipex, which was set up to undertake technology transfer and commercialisation of innovations from the NHS in Yorkshire. The approach adopted by Medipex has been shown to be a successful model for the commercialisation of IP, obtaining private sector investment and winning external recognition after its first three years trading. Analysis of the outputs demonstrates that though the majority of ideas emerge from service use, the innovations that have high-value commercial potential emerge from research undertaken in the hospitals