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Byline: Ulrich Lichtenthaler To appropriate rents from innovation, most industrial firms have concentrated on internal innovation processes in the past. Thus, they have focused on marketing their technological knowledge in their own products. Along with the trend towards open innovation, however, many firms currently try to actively commercialise technologies outside their organisational boundaries. External Technology Commercialisation (ETC) refers to commercialising technological knowledge exclusively or in addition to its application in a firm's own products, e.g., out-licensing agreements. To overcome the focus of prior research on the new product development process, this paper addresses the ETC process, which represents a complementary mode of technology marketing. Based on a thorough analysis of the literature, the ETC process at the multiproject level is examined in depth. This analysis permits us to identify the critical tasks along the ETC process from a managerial perspective. Against the background of increasing managerial interest in ETC, this article deepens our understanding of technology marketing in open innovation systems and has major implications for research into technology transfer.

Byline: Ulrich Lichtenthaler External Technology Commercialisation (ETC) refers to the commercialisation of disembodied technological knowledge, either exclusively or in addition to its application in own products of a firm. Recently, a few firms have realised enormous benefits by externally leveraging technology assets. Most firms, however, experience major difficulties when they try to actively use the external mode of technology marketing. Despite these difficulties, a substantial increase in ETC could be observed during the last years. Therefore, the present paper focuses on ETC as a complementary mode of technology marketing to balance the focus of prior works on the application of technology inside the firm. Based on an analysis of the existing literature, the characteristics of the ETC perspective are detailed, and the strategic and monetary functions of ETC are examined. Then, an integrated approach to technology marketing is developed, which may help to explain the contradictory situation of enormous benefits and major managerial difficulties in ETC. A more holistic approach is particularly relevant due to the strong interdependencies between internal and external technology exploitation. Finally, the implications of an integrated technology marketing approach for research and practice are discussed, and suggestions for further research are given.

Byline: Ulrich Lichtenthaler The importance of international R&D alliances has been growing, and many large companies carry out more than 100 R&D alliances simultaneously. In parallel, the R&D organisations of large companies have become increasingly international. As a result, large technology-intensive companies face the problem of managing their multiple international R&D alliances in the context of globally distributed R&D units. In a situation involving both the multi-alliance and the international dimension, an adequate localisation and organisation of the alliance activities gain additional importance. These challenges are very common in practice but they do not receive adequate attention in the existing literature. Therefore, a framework is developed in this article based on existing research results regarding the localisation and organisation of international multi-R&D-alliance processes. The questions described above are analysed along a process model of international multi-R&D-alliance processes. Afterwards, a process-spanning view is set up and managerial implications are discussed. Finally, the organisational option of an 'alliance function' is described, which facilitates an integrated management approach to international multi-R&D-alliance processes.

Byline: Ulrich Lichtenthaler, Eckhard Lichtenthaler International external technology acquisition has become more and more important since the mid 1980s. Large companies may carry out more than 100 external technology acquisition projects simultaneously with partners all over the world and face the challenge of choosing adequate organisation types for these projects. In this paper, a concept for the localisation of external technology acquisition projects has been developed based on existing research results. Following this concept, adequate methods of coordination for different types of localisation are presented along a process model of external technology acquisition.