Markus Kirchberger

2014

This paper provides a systematic review of the current literature on technology transfer and commercialization. Technological inventions are fundamental for a country's economic growth. However, in order to actually create value for the society and to generate profits for the involved companies, these inventions need to be successfully transferred to the market, i.e. newly developed technologies need to be integrated into salable products. In particular, our study focuses on the various ways through which technology commercialization can take place. Three main groups of institutions exist, which can either act as developers of technologies and/or organizations bringing these technologies to the market: Universities and research institutes, technology start-ups, and established companies. We propose a theoretical framework of possible interactions between these organizations. Based on the systematic review of 144 articles, key characteristics of the technology development organizations are analyzed with regard to the different possible channels available to commercialize their technologies. Furthermore, an overview of factors that influence successful technology commercialization (TC) is given and commonalities across the different commercialization channels are discussed.