Barriers to commercialize nanotechnology product innovation and the strategies to overcome the barriers

Abstract

Nanotechnology has drawn a substantial amount of attention from policy makers and companies all across the globe. This research-intensive field is relatively in its early stages of commercialization. A plethora of large corporations and small-medium enterprises (SMEs) exists in different industries which harness nanotechnology to develop innovative products. A vast sum of money continues to be invested by governments all across the globe to accelerate the commercialization efforts for bringing innovative nanotechnology products to the market. However, the commercialization of such products is hindered by a variety of barriers. This research takes a closer look at product innovation springing from the SMEs in the field of nanotechnology. In this research, following central questions have been investigated: 1. What barriers are faced by SMEs during the commercialization of nanotechnology product innovation? 2. And, how do SMEs overcome the barriers? Qualitative research is adopted to answer these questions. Multiple case study method is used to investigate the topic. Literature study on barriers to innovation, desk research on the cases and semi-structured interviews have been conducted to fully answer the questions. The research contributes to the existing body of literature in barriers by finding out new barriers in the cases. Further, empirical based strategies devised in the research holds managerial implications both for the companies and policy makers. A new framework is built for the categorisation of barriers based on a simplified market model of a firm. Four broad categories of barriers namely technology-related, firm-related, environmental, and market characteristics have been defined. These categories are further sub-divided into several ones. The framework is further used to categorise the barriers found in the cases. This categorisation further helped in formulating strategies to deal with these barriers. Concerning the barriers, the research reveals that the cases are heavily hit by firm-related barriers. It is followed by technology related-barriers, environmental barriers and market-characteristic barriers. The strategies adopted by the companies to overcome the barriers were influenced by the context in which the product innovation was commercialised. Generic strategies that came out of the research can be broadly seen as that of either improving or circumventing the barrier, or leaving the barrier unaddressed.