Title: Framework for developing process-based technologies at a very early stage

Authors: Carol Ann McDevitt

Addresses: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, E40-351 Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA

Abstract: After the development of a new chemical process, innovative entrepreneurs must turn this new intellectual property into a value proposition for the new company. Early in the product development process, management should begin to ask and answer the question, ||What is the product?|| After an initial discussion of the traditional product development process, this paper concludes that there are system-level issues to be considered when the product is a chemical process rather than a manufactured good. One important distinction is that super-system issues such as the following must be considered: economy and access to financing; regional/national support and stability; regulatory regime;protection of intellectual property/rights; human capital; industry structure; industry value propositions. A series of industry value propositions for different ||products|| (supply of manufactured goods, process design & equipment, equipment only, equipment & parts, sector-limited licenses, use of equipment) is presented. This paper provides a framework to evaluate these system-level aspects.

Keywords: product development; chemical process; start-up; process industries.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2003.003513

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2003 Vol.1 No.1, pp.11 - 27

Published online: 12 Sep 2003 *

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