Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization: A Set of Assessment Dimensions

Technology entrepreneurship is a new topic in the field of Information Systems, although attempts to handle this phenomenon have been made in the management and technical literature in the past. Furthermore, complex technology artifacts are yearly the output of compound research projects developed by highly skilful individuals. The exploitation of these artifact is the process to address more problems that can be solved or applications in more than the initiating case. The exploitation alternatives and pertinent vehicles include the process of new venture creation and technology entrepreneurship. Particularly, the authors argue that technology entrepreuship is a commercialization option in the process of technological research and complex ITC artifact exploitation. This process, of research commercialization and developed artifact exploitation, is rather complex and is affected by a variety of factors including technology readiness issues, targeted market specific features and appointed exploitation team mismatch. A structured set of assessment directions is presented, aiming to contribute in the journey of successful transfer of technological research to society, through technology entrepreneurship. Further to this, a challenging commercialization case of complex research output, developed in a well-known European research center, is presented. The case is analysed through the proposed dimensions and key issues are highlighted. Further research in the topic is required to shed more light in the various aspects and further dimensions may affect the successful technology entrepreneurship activity.