6. COMMERCIALIZATION OF TECHNOLOGY

Commercialization of Technology is essentially a process of moving research results from a research environment onto a successfully marketable product. Commercialization is often thought of as an orderly series of steps i.e. defining a product (or process), building a prototype and testing its feasibility, completing product development and design, starting a production-phase and finally passing the manufactured product to the marketing and sales department. But perhaps this sequential and orderly path is too simple an appreciation of what it actually is.

The development of technology and its subsequent commercialization is a very complicated process. After an idea has been carried through from conception to proof-of-concept, the difficult tasks of identifying and evaluating potential markets, attracting sufficient financial resources, and overcoming scale-up and manufacturing problems must still be undertaken by industry. This process involves high risk, long lead times, and many threats of failure. In moving any technology out of the laboratory, an industrial firm must be convinced that the often-costly development required for a commercial product or process is worth the risk involved.