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Innovation resource allocation performance is an important driver of global competitiveness of nations. Due to the complexity of innovation production process, the structure of the innovation resource allocation is no longer single, but most of the existing studies on the innovation resource allocation performance are based on series cases overlooking parallel cases. We evaluate the innovation resource allocation efficiency of Chinese industrial enterprises from the research and development (R&D) stage and the commercialisation stage, where the commercialisation stage consists of two parallel sub-stages (technology commercialisation stage and product commercialisation stage). As a result, we develop a cross two-stage data envelopment analysis model (TS-DEA model) with nested parallel structure. The result shows that traditional DEA model overestimates the efficiency score due to pursuing the efficiency optimisation for decision-making unit (DMU). Compared with western China, central China was more efficient in allocating innovation resource for industrial enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the impact of university-industry collaborative research with different dimensions on university patent commercialisation and offer suggestions to promote patent commercialisation. University-industry collaborative research is measured by the university-industry collaborative patent application. Collaboration breadth and depth are defined. The theories about the impacts of the collaboration breadth and depth on university patent commercialisation are analysed and the hypotheses are proposed accordingly. We explore the impacts by negative binomial regression with the panel data set constructed from the patent data of the 'double first-class' universities in China during 2015–2017. Results show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the collaboration breadth and the university patent commercialisation. Nevertheless, the collaboration depth has no impact on university patent commercialisation. And surprisingly, the interaction of breadth and depth shows a negative impact on it. Suggestions are offered that universities should avoid collaborating with industry inordinately and pay attention to balance breadth and depth of the collaboration with industry, improving the quality of the collaboration and promoting patent commercialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multifaceted issues regarding university-industry relations are an increasing focus of attention of both scholars and practitioners, as a means of enhancing current knowledge transfer practices and policies. One of the central questions is whether and how the mechanisms underlying different types of university-industry collaborations (collaborative research, contract research, consulting) influence universities' research commercialisation outcomes (patenting, licensing, spin-off generation). Results of six negative binomial models in Generalized Estimating Equations based on longitudinal panel data on Italian universities, reveal that while collaborative research with industry leads to an increase in patenting activities and spin-off generation, contract research and consulting boost licensing opportunities. Results also reveal complementarities between different types of university-industry linkages, fostering all the types of research commercialisation outcomes. Managerial and policy implications are discussed at the end of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desorptive capacity is the organisational ability to transfer internal knowledge to external actors to obtain competitive advantage. We distinguish two forms of desorptive capacity to investigate how organisations active in emerging technology domains explore and exploit opportunities to match internally developed technology to external needs. We also focus on management innovation – the ability to create or revise organisational structures or processes – as a potential antecedent of desorptive capacity. From a study of 84 synthetic biology organisations we found that explorative and exploitative desorptive capacity mediate the relationship between management innovation and external technology commercialisation. The study provides empirical evidence of the existence and interdependence of different managerial and organisational processes required for external technology commercialisation. We underscore how organisations can valorise technological assets strategically through management innovation and by achieving a fit between internal practices and the technological base of potential technology adopters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By utilising policy reference network analysis and keyword timing analysis, this paper proposes a framework for measuring policy diffusion, which can delineate research focus, measurement indicators, and methods of science and technology policy diffusion from four dimensions: intensity, breadth, speed, and direction. Based on the framework, this paper collects and categorises China's policies on technology transfer and commercialisation from 1985 to 2017, and conducts quantitative research on the diffusion process and characteristics of those polices from the previously mentioned four dimensions, which enables us to investigate the diffusion law of knowledge, information, and experience among those policies. The paper can provide data support on the choice of policy type for subsequent specific policy formulation by exploring the characteristics of different types of policy diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do-it-yourself (DIY) science research is currently in an expansion phase both in terms of its depth (with an increasing number of papers published each year) and its scope (with the core ideas being linked to an increasing number of constructs). To develop a more holistic appreciation of how the field has developed and to identify potential avenues of future research we undertake a bibliometric content analysis of the DIY science literature post 1980. We find four major clusters pertaining to education, culture, the operationalising of DIY science (including commercialisation) and technology-related issues. We review each of these clusters and the main themes contained within the cluster, including highlighting possible research questions that align to these key themes. We find the field to be highly dispersed theoretically on the basis of the bibliometric content analysis. In considering a range of sample papers in each thematic cluster, we identify a range of potential research topics going forward. Identifying the key thematic foci of DIY science research to date provides the researchers within the field the opportunity to clearly locate their work within a highly diverse literature and to build new research trajectories around core concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the effectiveness of different types of policy instruments (Direct Funding Support, National Technology Transfer Demonstration Institutions, and University Science Parks) and their mix on commercialisation performance of universities' technologies is an important but unsolved issue. Using province-level data from 2009–2016, we conduct such empirical research and assess their effectiveness. The results show that different policy instruments have different effects on commercialisation performance, and there are significant synergies between Direct Funding Support and other two policy instruments. Taking account of regional heterogeneity, this study finds that policy mixes are implemented better in regions with high innovation capacity. These findings, in turn, have notable implications for policymakers and university researchers who aim to commercialise their technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology entrepreneurship is a vehicle that facilitates prosperity in individuals, businesses and nations. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to investigate the influence of technology entrepreneurship and strategic decisions on commercialisation of technology. To achieve this, data collected from 220 small manufacturing firms in Addis Ababa city was analysed using the OLS regression analysis. The result of the study revealed that technology entrepreneurship of small firms is the main source for the firm's better value creation and being competitively advantageous over its competitors. The firms will be competitively advantageous when they have better technology innovation and adoption. This happened through commercialising technical innovation and technology adoption. Therefore, small firm owners/managers should involve in creating values by forming a strategic alliance with stakeholders. The small venture owners/managers from low-income markets should also tend to engage more in adopting technologies from developed economies and involve on better innovation in designing and improving the overall performance of the product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effect of regional innovation elements on innovation performance from the perspective of configurations. Based on the theory of innovation value chain, this paper divides the innovation process into two stages – technology development and technology commercialisation and proposes the realisation process model of regional innovation performance. Using the statistical data of province-level innovation systems in China, this study adopts a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to explore which combination of innovation elements can achieve high regional innovation performance and determines the difference between the stage of technology development and technology commercialisation. Results of the study can help regional policymakers to determine the most appropriate path to achieve high innovation performance according to the existing innovation elements in the regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms often fail to shift from laboratory research to product development, and this failure is known as the Valley of Death. Although previous research has found solutions to the problem, the critical role of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in the technology commercialisation and new product development (NPD) of manufacturing firms is often neglected. On the basis of the role theory of product innovation, this study aims to establish a new and comprehensive framework to investigate the role of KIBS in NPD in manufacturing. We identify the critical roles of KIBS as mentor and director, coordinator, strategic leader and gatekeeper, sponsor, and product champion in crossing the fuzzy front end of NPD. We find that manufacturers are likely prone to transform their inventions to innovations and finally benefit from their invented products through KIBS innovative capacity and availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When evaluating the economic value of a technology or business project, we need to consider the period and cost for commercialisation. Since the discounted cash flow (DCF) method has limitations in that it can not consider consecutive investments or does not reflect the probabilistic property of commercialisation cost, we often take it desirable to apply the concept of real options with key metrics of underlying asset value, commercialisation cost, and volatility, while regarding the value of technology and investment as the opportunity value. We provide more elaborated real options model, which reflects the uncertainty in the option pricing model (OPM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating universities’ R&D performance can serve as a tool for policymakers, enabling them to identify the best R&D practitioners for benchmarking and develop strategies for enhancing performance by highlighting areas of weakness. This study divides universities’ R&D performance into two dimensions: efficiency and effectiveness. We employ a network data envelopment analysis approach to measure universities’ R&D efficiency, and separately use a multi-index comprehensive evaluation method to assess their R&D effectiveness from a multistage perspective. We calculate the comprehensive R&D performance of universities in 30 provinces in China from 2004 to 2014. An analysis of temporal variation reveals that universities’ R&D performance in some provinces improved rapidly, increasing gaps in performance as a whole. The spatial pattern for the 30 provinces shows that universities in provinces with medium or strong R&D performance are mainly in coastal provinces and central areas in China. Finally, universities’ R&D activities are considered ‘efficient and effective’ only in a small number of provinces, while in most provinces, these activities can generally be considered ‘less efficient and effective.’ Hence, universities in provinces with different R&D performance modes should implement targeted improvement strategies according to their characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological innovation, as a collaboration among inventors and complementary knowledge professionals, requires the management of knowledge boundaries and the integration of specialised tasks. We propose that dense collaborations among inventors and professionals facilitate the process of collaboration by reducing coordination cost and by mitigating the uncertainties inherent in technological innovation. In the empirical context of university technology commercialisation, we find that the relational density of three main actors, i.e. inventors, technology managers, and patent attorneys, enhances technology licensing, a major milestone in commercialisation. This occurs especially when the technological field is less institutionalised. Our study contributes to the literature on technological innovation by highlighting the role of interpersonal relations between inventors and complementary knowledge providers as a coordination mechanism in the innovation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions on the patterns of technological innovation have significant implications in terms of the efficient distribution of national R&D resources and the establishment of corporate managerial strategies. This study is focused on calculating and analysing technology cycle time (TCT) by technological area based on patent data that can be used as easily accessible objective indicators for the purpose of modelling the patterns of technological innovation by period and technological area. The main technological areas handled by the study include medical science, vehicles, metallurgy, and computing. Of the patent data registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office from 1990 to 2014, International Patent Classification sub-class codes representing each technological area were selected to collect patent data, and to generate TCT statistics every five years. The TCT statistics generated is interpreted as the technological life cycle, to be used in modelling technological innovation patterns individualised by technology and period. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study deals with the engagement of academics with the industry using different channels for the transfer of knowledge and technology. The study provides empirical evidence substantiating the effect of the frequency of use of the different channels of interaction in explaining the relationship between past collaborative experience of the academic and the outcomes of academia–industry collaboration. The results indicate that past collaborative experience develops strong insights into industrial problems, opens up avenues for research projects, leads to industrial funding and builds research networks. The prospects of commercialisation of research of the academic are also rooted in past collaborative experience. The results also reveal that the frequency of use of the traditional and bi-directional channels partially mediate the relationship between the collaborative experience and the outcomes of collaboration, validating that higher collaborative experience leads to increased frequency of use of channels that results in improved outcomes of academia–industry collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

First, this paper explores Main Battle Tank (MBT) data set with different statistical methods in order to decide the most appropriate variables as reliable yardsticks in applying technology forecasting (TF) using data envelopment analysis (TFDEA) technique. It then applies TF using DEA method to forecast MBT technologies. This article attempts to predict technology development year of MBT commercialised from 1941 to 1994. This article presents the processes of TFDEA in detail and identifies some issues to search for appropriate input and output variables to forecast MBT technologies. The purpose of this study is to address some issues and identify an appropriate data to predict future trends of MBT technologies when using TFDEA and multiple linear regression tools. Finally, the study provides an understanding of the technological advances being sought in MBT technologies and information for use in making decisions regarding development strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Life science innovation demands detailed expertise at each stage of the development of a commercial product. Besides a perceived shortage of venture capital, venturing life science companies face the challenge of limited access to qualified expertise in regulatory affairs and commercialisation. Examining a bio hub initiative at a major pharmaceutical company, a form of in-house incubator wherein life science companies can both take advantage of laboratory facilities and the stock of expertise of the hosting company, it is argued that such initiatives support the life science innovation field. Taking on aniungensbrokerage role, the hosting company effectively connects previously separated actors, thus lowering the transaction costs incurred when accessing qualified scientific, regulatory, and commercial know-how, which are all of great value to life science companies during the venturing phase. Theiungensbrokerage role thus represents a highly valuable position in the field of life science innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between academic publications and patents. First, we use regression models to investigate those factors that act as potential drivers when considering papers and patents individually. Second, we run a cluster analysis in order to test whether universities follow different patterns in the way they align their resources in regard to research objectives. The empirical application considers the Spanish public higher education system for the period 2006–2010. The overarching conclusion is that cross-fertilisation relationships between academic research and its commercialisation are found. There are, however, important differences in how universities are disseminating research results, particularly when we analyse the resources and capabilities universities possess. Results also stress the need to look at contextual and normative factors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Technological innovation through R&D is a critical element in enhancing and fostering firm performance. In particular, measurement of R&D efficiency throughout the innovation and commercialisation stages is important. However, almost of R&D efficiency-related studies assumed that R&D is a single stage. This study aims at analysing relative efficiency scores throughout the stages of the R&D process using a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with a sample of 1039 Korean manufacturing firms. Based on our preliminary results, this study was extended by comparing subsample groups categorised by firm size and industry type. The key findings include: (1) firms show imbalanced R&D efficiency throughout the two stages and (2) R&D efficiency is different by firm size and industry type. The empirical results and findings may assist policy- and decision-makers to enhance R&D efficiency at the firm level. Moreover, introduction of the two-stage DEA model and comparative analysis methods to firm-level data contributes to scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, growing attention has been devoted to the commercialisation of knowledge and technologies developed by universities and public research institutions. A central role in this particular process is played by the technology transfer offices (TTOs), which are on the one hand in charge of promoting the transfer of knowledge and technology to external companies, and on the other hand are also responsible for protecting and licensing the intellectual property of the research organisation. This paper is focused on a TTO operating in the food context, with the specific objectives of identifying the performance indicators and the main factors affecting its performance and, finally, analysing the relationships among these factors. Results highlighted the importance of both external and internal factors for the performance of a TTO operating in this context. In addition, we found both direct and indirect relations within these factors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A substantial amount of research has been committed to exploring how university-based research can be transferred to industry and be commercialised. This literature emphasises the substantial institutional, cultural and financial barriers to what has been referred to as academic entrepreneurship. At the same time, and most noteworthy in the USA, university patenting has grown remarkably since the mid-1960s; today (2014), much of the basic life science research conducted by universities is being transformed into health care innovations. This paper reports on a case study of the biomaterials and medical device industry in Sweden and emphasises that, while capital funding is a key challenge for university spin-outs, an additional and less widely recognised concern facing these companies is how to make the public sector health care organisations, primarily, actually buy the products developed. The study suggests that perhaps too much emphasis is being put on ‘upstream activities’, including the early stage support provided by incubators and state agencies that provide seed-money funding, while more mature biomaterials and medical device companies are suffering from both a lack of unified regulatory frameworks and policies governing the procurement of new health care innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on addressing a primary charge levelled against patent assertion entities (PAEs): that they impede innovation and technology commercialisation activities of US firms. The paper utilises an intellectual property (IP) strategy framework within the construct of a firm business model to delineate PAE typologies, and then evaluates how they ‘fit’ with either a framework for the protection of IP assets or the exploitation of IP assets. The PAE business model operates under neither an IP asset protection nor IP asset exploitation strategy, but its own IP monetisation strategy. Moreover, a review of recent research on the proliferation and economic impact of PAEs is undertaken, with the overwhelming empirical evidence showing that PAEs are having an adverse impact on innovation and technology commercialisation activities of US firms. Potential patent policy reforms and emerging marketplace options are identified for enhancing a business environment conducive to successful technology innovation and commercialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future social value of nanoscale science and technology (NST) has been repeatedly represented as revolutionary. However, government and industry support for the commercialisation of NST has to confront four key areas of uncertainty: concerning potential hazards associated with applications, commercial viability, public acceptance and evolving regulation. Academic and policy responses have to date largely emphasised the need for adaptive and anticipatory regulation, yet research which evaluates the prospects of success in implementing such measures has so far been lacking. This paper contributes to remedying this lack by examining difficulties and opportunities which may arise around this regulatory agenda in the UK, with the aid of a ‘policy Delphi’ exercise undertaken with a multi-stakeholder panel. It summarises four scenarios to aid policy-makers and technology strategists in the UK and internationally in thinking through how the future of NST innovation may be affected by factors associated with the aforementioned areas of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we place green innovation in a broader technology development, commercialisation and distribution context to test hypotheses in three areas: (1) the internal vs external drivers of green innovation; (2) the effect of green innovation on business performance; and (3) the role of channel structures (the degree to which producers selldirectlyto consumers or businesses) in making green innovation more productive in terms of business performance. To test our hypotheses, data from an international survey among 123 wineries is used. Our results suggest that internal drivers, i.e. environmental management and quality management in particular, play a greater role than external drivers (e.g. government and regulatory pressures) on the adoption of green innovation strategies. Producing and using organic products and processes and recycling activities are found to have a significant direct positive impact on business performance. Our results also confirm the moderating effect of channel structures: the benefits of green innovation in terms of business performance are larger when firms use more direct sales channels (selling wine directly from the wine cellar to consumers and businesses). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results from a pilot study of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) based on a web-scraping and content analysis of current and archived nanotechnology enterprise websites. We use this approach to explore nanotechnology SMEs transitions from discovery to commercialisation and understand how transitions vary by SME characteristics, technology and market sectors. Our findings suggest that although the idealised linear innovation model is present, important instances of divergence exist. Cluster analysis uncovered sectoral differences but even more distinctions based on the age, funding source, and research intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The potential benefits of nanotechnologies in healthcare are widely expected to be enormous and a considerable amount of investment is already pouring into public research in this area. These high expectations of benefits are coupled with uncertainty surrounding the potential risks of the prospective products containing nanomaterials, in addition to concerns about the adequacy of regulatory oversight. These challenges add another level of uncertainty for those deciding to invest in nanotechnology R&D and threaten to impede product development and commercialisation. Nanotechnology in healthcare (often labelled as nanomedicine) presents a situation where waiting games are a strong possibility; however, waiting games have been avoided (so far) through the unlocking of the dominant regulation regime. This paper describes how an innovation impasse in nanomedicine could have ensued if the traditional wait and watch strategies of legislators and regulators had been followed. We describe how waiting games were avoided through the opening up and distribution of regulatory approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s, Japan has been regarded as an exemplar in technological development and its national approach recommended to governments in the USA and Europe. Hence, when Japan initiated a structured, strategic programme to develop alternative and renewable energy (RE) technologies in the 1970s, success would have been expected. Yet, despite focused Government support and the involvement of major firms, the installed capacity of RE technology in 2010 remains low. This paper reviews Japanese research, development and deployment activities in wind, solar photovoltaics and fuel cell technologies, identifying sectoral-specific constraints arising from a combination of poor management of regulation, lack of risk capital, ineffective advocacy coalitions, lack of an independent technical authority and limited communication of learning. These are fundamental weaknesses in Japanese institutions and failures in four of the eight technological innovation systems functions necessary for successful commercialisation. We conclude that Japan's exemplar image is not justified in the energy sector. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Governments in most countries have set up specialised programmes to support the commercialisation of academic research. A key challenge is to develop indicators that are able to measure operation and impact. This study shows how different indicators are used to satisfy different stakeholders of a Norwegian support programme. Policy intervention is supposed to lead to additionality related to input, behaviour and output. While the support programme uses input and behavioural measures as strategic tools for its operation, policy makers are mostly preoccupied with output measures. This study illustrates how indicators develop over time, partly co-evolving with the development of the programme and the national commercialisation infrastructure. Indicators serve as incentives for the agents involved, but they may also influence the strategies of the programme that established them. The external signalling effect of indicators remains central, while its use in daily operations becomes less important with time and experience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Out-licensing is a technology exploitation option to generate revenues without investing in downstream complementary assets. Despite its increasing strategic relevance, the strong complexity of out-licensing activity determines a substantial discrepancy in firms' ability to extract monetary benefits from this practice. Searching for determinants of out-licensing performance, the paper focuses in particular on the role of licensing managers. Based on a multiple case study analysis involving 26 out-licensing deals executed in seven Italian biotech NTBFs, the study shows that expert scientific skills, extensive licensing practice and prior employment in multinationals, but not an intense social network, characterise successful licensing managers, while high delegation and powerful intrinsic rewards enable individual capacities of licensing managers to translate into actual economic value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We devise future-oriented technology analyses tools to investigate a technology at an interesting development stage of early emerging applications. At this stage, technologies show great potential with little established commercialisation. Future development pathways are highly uncertain and heavily dependent on contextual interactions. We apply R&D profiling, R&D-to-applications cross-charting, and technology delivery system modelling to help understand the phenomena that bear upon development prospects. We develop our approach through a two-tier case study: general treatment of nanomaterial-enhanced biosensors, followed by more specialised treatment of one subset of those. Results convey the importance of considering technological and social context factors together to understand likely innovation pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of wireless mobile communication service subscribers reached 4.6 billion worldwide in 2009, and mobile revenues are expected to be over US$1 trillion around 2012 according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). A significant number of studies have been made to forecast the growing market and evaluate the new generation technology, the 'beyond 3rd generation' (B3G). However, there is no study that forecasts when any of these new technologies will be commercialised. This paper presents a technical framework for forecasting the commercialisation timeline of B3G technologies and provides insight on technology trajectories from 1G to 4G. The results show that a combination of technical parameters can explain heterogeneous wireless mobile communication technologies. Three parameters selected include channel bandwidth, channel bit rate and data capacity for technical framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers unexpected outcomes of innovation occurring during research processes. Because serendipity has often led to important discoveries, here a model is developed to analyse the conditions for a 'market for ideas' to exist. With the help of game theory in particular, it is shown that the creation of such a market is quite unlikely because unfair buyer behaviour and the possibility of expropriation of the innovation renders the seller reluctant to negotiate with a potential buyer. All these factors may hinder the flow of ideas among institutions, generating a loss for society as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dynamics and bottlenecks in the commercialisation of biotechnology in Finland by using the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry as a benchmark. The paper considers both ICT and biotechnology within the dynamic life-cycle model of technological revolutions by Perez. For an empirical comparison, it applies the concept of a 'competence bloc' as an interpretive and focusing device. A competence bloc may be defined as a set of actors, functional competences, and institutions that are necessary for large-scale commercialisation and industrialisation of new emerging technologies. In spite of the many differences between the ICT and biotechnology industries, the comparison serves as a heuristic device for pinpointing important features in the framework conditions of commercialisation in biotechnology. The paper shows that a major bottleneck in the development of the biotechnology industry in Finland is the scarcity of industrialists to transform innovations into large-scale production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alliances are becoming an increasingly common strategy for product development despite the intrinsic tension between alliance logic and innovation logic. This paper investigates the development of alliance structures during the exploration phase of the innovation process. Based on a study of five service development alliances in the telecom industry, three patterns are identified by which the alliance structure and the innovation are brought into alignment. Such alignment seems to be a necessary condition for the transition into commercialization. The patterns identified are: (1) Learning about the innovation may trigger changes in the alliance structure; (2) Learning about the innovation may suggest changes in the alliance structure that are impossible to implement, however, thus triggering changes in the innovation; (3) Planning the future alliance structure may suggest changes in the innovation. Based on these patterns, some conclusions and implications are identified, for both theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a broad level, it has been shown that different institutional contexts, policy regimes and business systems affect the kinds of activities in which a nation specialises. This paper is concerned with the way in which different national business systems affect the nature of participation of a nation in the knowledge economy. The paper seeks to explain cross-national variations in the knowledge economy in the Australia, Denmark and Sweden with reference to dominant characteristics of the business system. Although Australia, Denmark and Sweden are all small wealthy countries, they each have quite distinctive business systems. Australia has been regarded as a variant of the competitive business system and has generally been described as an entrepreneurial economy with a large small firm population. In contrast Sweden has a coordinated business system that has favoured large industrial firms. The Danish variant of the coordinated model, with its well-developed vocational training system, is distinguishable by its large population of networked small and medium size enterprises. The three countries also differ significantly on two dimensions of participation in the knowledge economy. First, there is cross-national variation in patterns of specialisation in knowledge intensive industries and services. Second, the institutional infrastructure of the knowledge economy (or the existing stock of knowledge and competence in the economy, the potential for generation and diffusion of new knowledge and the capacity for commercialisation of new ideas) differs across the three countries. This paper seeks to explain variations in these two dimensions of the knowledge economy with reference to characteristics of the business system in the three countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a study of the emerging microturbine industry, this paper argues that recent trends towards preventive and product-oriented industrial environmental management are problematic from the technology suppliers' perspective. This is especially evident in the suppliers' initial efforts to define markets and applications during early stages of commercialization. The distinction between product innovation driven by explicit or perceived user needs and innovation in environmental technology driven by regulatory demands has become blurred. This means that suppliers have had to interact simultaneously with both users and regulators in order to articulate the demand and acceptance for the new technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the regulatory mechanisms and negotiation processes involved in the commercialization of intellectual property in industrial-academic collaborations. Intellectual property as a feature of commercialization of knowledge; Regimes of appropriation and governance; Implication of commercialization policies for intellectual property; Case of a university spin-off.