This study investigate how students can contribute to science commercialization through education, specifically programs targeting commercialization of novel technologies. Technological development has the potential to transform our societies for the better. Universities have an important role in making this happen, and university students have proven to be instrumental in realizing the potential of novel technologies and research. The process of realizing such a potential revolves around matching technological developments with market applications and needs. Defining such market needs for novel technologies is challenging because of the liability of newness. However, university students may have limited domain knowledge about the technologies and their development, as compared to researchers and other experts. Regardless, recent studies have indicated that students, not scientists, are more likely to develop academic-based spin-offs or spinouts (ASOs) despite their lack of knowledge of scientific technologies. The aim of the present paper is to investigate how students – given their limited prior knowledge – can identify and evaluate market opportunities for novel technologies.
The research question is “How do students identify market opportunities of novel technologies?”
The study is designed into three main parts. First, a review on literatures of opportunity recognition of novel technologies is drawn from entrepreneurship and innovation studies with the unit of analysis as students. Secondly, the study specifies the novel technologies selection, specifically for science commercialization program for students. Third, we investigate the opportunity identification processes of novel technologies.
This study has practical implications on the design and educational perspective of science commercialization programs, which gain attentions from universities and research institutions promoting the transfer of technology novelty through students’ initiatives. Theoretically, this study contributes to the field of technology opportunity recognition.