Abstract
It has been widely accepted overall the world that technological innovation is the key driving force behind productivity improvement and economic growth. China is still lagging behind in many high technological areas, thus transferring technologies from developed countries to China are needed since it is faster and cheaper. The opportunity and poverty have been recognized in both China and the developed countries where the economic situation is not optimistic, research and development assets are decreasing. However, technology transfer to mainland China has an unusually low rate of success, high technologies are extremely expensive, and the end of such failure technology transfer projects is extensive. This project aims to develop An Entrepreneurship-Oriented Assessing framework for assessing technology commercialization in Hong Kong/China so that fair decisions can be made from different perspectives.The research method adopted in this dissertation based on literature review, conceptual model, expert evaluation and action cases studies. It experiences three key steps, namely, the proposal of a preliminary model, the verification of the model based on 14 experts rating, and the application of the model in ten action cases.
First of all, based on literature review, many problems and challenges to technology commercialization has identified and analyzed. It founds that technology commercialization is not simply transferring the technology from one party to another. Literature review suggests that creating technology-based entrepreneurial start-ups is a highly effective way to facilitating technology commercialization. Further studies reveals that a “start-up” requires the establishment of a company based on scalable and profitable business model. Additionally, technology commercialization does not begin with a new business immediately but prepares the business model as well as analysis of all the relevant factors. While initiating the project, it needs not only a champion entrepreneur but also an international entrepreneur network. This is essential especially when most technologies are to be transferred from USA and Europe to China. Finally, professional supports from legal, intellectual property as well as accounting are also essential to technology commercialization. As a result, An Entrepreneurial-Oriented Assessing Model (ETCA Model) with ten factors/categories was proposed.
The conceptual model was then commented by experts with experiences in technology commercialization in Hong Kong, UK, US, Taiwan and mainland China. The measurement of the previous ten categories was developed into a measurement instrument. The model was evaluated by 14 experts based on the measurement instrument. The weights of each category were calculated based on Dempster-Shafer combination method. It was found that all the weights of the ten categories are different, although they are all crucial, which can be explained by Cannikin Law Theory.
After expert validation, the model then applied in ten action cases. Six cases obtained an overall score over 8 under a 1-10 scale, which turned out to be successful. Three cases got an overall rating around 6 and turned out to be failed. The ten cases and their analysis suggest that 8 is perhaps a protected door for further commercialization according to the assessment of an Entrepreneurial-Oriented Assessing Model. Below 6 should not be recommended for going ahead. There were no cases between 6 and 8, which may be regarded as the murky area and may need to be double check and re-assessment. This is an extremely expensive and time consuming process to test the model, but it seems worthwhile and necessary considering the fact that a technology commercialization project may cost billions. The model now adopted by a few governmental organizations in China and a few global consulting companies focusing on technology transferring from developed countries to China.
There are a few findings and innovations in this project. First, this project reveals that technology transfer or commercialization is not simply transferring the technology from one party to the other. Second, technology per se may not be the product for end users yet, and further development is needed. Third, new business start-up with a product based on the technology seems to be an effective method to commercialize new technologies. Fourth, therefore, it is strong and practical to adopt an entrepreneurial role in technology transfer and commercialization, which may be a contribution to this subject in academic research. Finally, technology commercialization with start-up does not implement the start-up immediately. It needs a set of analysis of relevant factors. This has real practical implications for managers and governmental officials while dealing with high technology transfer projects. From methodology perspective, this project has implemented the Dempster-Shafer combination method for technology assessment, which is still remarkably new in the assessment field. Ten action case studies lasted for 5 years is perhaps another distinctive feature of this project.
| Date of Award | 15 Jul 2013 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Hongyi SUN (Supervisor) |