Title: Technology versus product innovations - are they like apples and oranges? A comparative study on commercialisation

Authors: Henri Simula; Povilas Valiauga; Tuula Lehtimäki

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, School of Science, Aalto University, Otaniementie 17, P.O. Box 15500, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland ' School of Science, Innovation Management Institute, Aalto University, Otaniementie 17, P.O. Box 15500, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland ' Department of Marketing, Oulu Business School, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4600, FI-90014, Finland

Abstract: Despite the importance of commercialisation in innovation processes, there remains a lack of empirical studies that focus on comparing commercialisation of products and commercialisation of technology. The purpose of this paper is to examine how commercialisation is conducted in these two different domains in the context of business-to-business firms. The objective is to introduce an improved comparison matrix with which to analyse the similarities and differences between these two entities. The first part of the paper is a selective literature review that provides the basis for our comparison. The second part illustrates two case studies and provides a cross-case analysis. The empirical findings of this study reveal novel insight compared to previous findings, and put forward a comprehensive matrix for product and technology commercialisation.

Keywords: technology innovation; product innovation; technology commercialisation; product commercialisation; new products; new technologies; case study; empirical comparison; B2B; business-to-business; literature review; case studies.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTMKT.2015.066084

International Journal of Technology Marketing, 2015 Vol.10 No.1, pp.25 - 46

Received: 07 Oct 2013
Accepted: 18 Mar 2014

Published online: 02 Dec 2014 *

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