Study in the commercialization of an innovative product: A case of a solar energy cooker

• Main Authors: Jose Rodrigo Erroa Delgado, 戴和希
• Other Authors: Wen-Ruey Lee
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/73778451731037709149

碩士 === 崑山科技大學 === 機械工程研究所 === 99 === Innovation has become a key factor not only in the success of a firm but also in its survival in our globalized and changing economy. As the Innovation and Enterprise Team asserts in its report: “In difficult economic times, firms need to adapt if they are going to survive. Innovation is particularly important at such times” (Innovation and Enterprise Team, 2009). Universities and research centers are big contributors to as generators of knowledge, technology and innovations for firms and/or for their own. At the same time the transformation of that knowledge and technology into a commercialized innovative product is a crucial factor in obtaining revenue for the success, survival and continuous grow of firms, as well as a crucial factor in obtaining revenue and financial resources for universities in order to maintain, expand and improve their researches. It is as crucial as the challenge it represents to move from the idea to the market, from the technology to a commercialized product. The commercialization of a new innovative product represents a big challenge, beginning from the fact that inventions and innovations had reported to have big rates of failing when it comes to succeed in the market place. According to (Udell, 2007), new product failure rate vary significantly, ranging from a low of 20 percent to a high of 85 percent Moreover, new technologies, inventions and innovations never reach the marketplace, dying in advance without having the opportunity to demonstrate their potential, even when it could be such a useful product by improving the quality of life of this world. Unfortunately, that is the case of some of the new green energy technologies that have being developed within universities, technologies that regardless its potential to reduce and optimize present and future environmental, monetary and social cost, never reach the market place, and thus not being properly diffused and without generating any kind of revenue. This thesis, addresses a study on the factors that affect the commercialization of an innovative product. The study also consider some aspects in one of the innovations developed in the college of engineering of Kun Shan University, a Solar Energy Cooker (SEC), which is on the line with the efforts that the university is doing to develop and promote technologies that use and take advantages of the clean energies such as Solar energy as a fuel to generate heat, in this case for cooking. The factors that affect the successful commercialization are studied through a literature review of previous studies about commercialization of patent products, inventions, innovative products, new products, etc. At the same time, it makes a brief review on previous commercialization models. After the identification of the factors that affect the process of commercialization, a selection of the most significant is done in order to take the most important and evaluated them. Later on, based on the evaluation of those factors and the literature review an existing commercialization model is adapted to be proposed as a guide for the commercialization of an innovative product. Finally, the factors and elements that are used to construct the proposed commercialization model are evaluated and validated. Conclusions and recommendations are presented to close this study.