Innovation Commercialisation: Processes, Tools and Implications

Abstract

Innovation commercialisation is a new direction in the literature. The challenge in these commercialisation-related activities is that they must simultaneously take into account the processes of generating innovations, developing products and services based on these aforementioned processes and then forming a business model around the product-service system. We see innovation commercialisation as a process that aims to create and implement a feasible business model for an innovation-based product-service system in the surrounding business ecosystem. This view builds on the literature on business model innovation, where the business model is seen as a value-creating subsystem in a complex system of business models, that is, within the business ecosystem. In our chapter, we describe a process that is used in more than 40 innovation commercialisation projects. The process has been developed and modified to serve the different needs of various innovation development groups. The process is iterative and has been divided into two parts: (1) proof of relevance and (2) in-depth development. We highlight the targets in the distinct stages of the process, the specific challenges related to the stages, tools and processes to tackle these challenges and the best practices based on the cases we have been investigating. Finally, we conclude the lessons learned, bringing them together into managerial implications that show how to get the best results out of innovation commercialisation projects.