Exploratory research into intellectual property commercialisation: The role of polytechnics in facilitating small and medium enterprise development in Singapore

Abstract

Over many years, intellectual property transfer and commercialisation (IPTC) scholars have paid significant attention to knowledge generation in universities and its commercialisation. However, little is known about the process and the value of commercialising the IP taken from polytechnics, although the polytechnic education sector provides a practice-based workforce and collaborates with industry in various innovative activities. The exploratory research has extended the discourse of IPTC scholars or practitioners to encompass the overall experience of small-medium enterprise (SME) uptake of polytechnic IP in the city-state of Singapore, which is pursuing the goal of becoming an innovation hub. The overarching IPTC problem explored by this research was how to encourage more SMEs to look beyond traditional IP producers (universities or research institutes) and explore IPTC with polytechnics. Taking a polytechnic translational IP allows SMEs to collect the maximum amount of validated learning from end-users with the least development effort. The research adopted a case study design to investigate SMEs’ relationships with IP providers. Through documentary research, the characteristics of public-private IPTC stakeholders in Singapore were investigated, focussing on the plans and policies of the citystate, institutes of higher learning (IHL), and SMEs. Following the documentary research, semistructured interviews were conducted with SME managers to ascertain their views of the IPTC process. Thematic analysis was used to interrogate the data. Recommendations to facilitate IPTC included implementing a deferred royalty payment, ensuring an IP co-ownership framework, and upholding simple and business-friendly IP valuation methods. A lack of IP due diligence, considerable variability in IP awareness, unrealistic IP valuation and the incompatibility of the financial goals of the potential partners in IPTC were identified as barriers to the successful negotiation and culmination of contracts. The research findings challenge the generally accepted idea that polytechnic IPTC should ideally adopt a ‘naked’ technology licensing approach, contributing nothing more than the IP. The results of interviews showed that most of the participant SMEs preferred that a polytechnic continue technology, design and knowhow support after the exchange of IP, and that IPTC take up should be understood as a function of connecting the business world to the research world in order that both may benefit from one another’s strengths. Polytechnics supply innovative designs and technologies, while SMEs provide dominant resources in business and customer insight – DTBC resources. Then, together, they make innovation happen. The research sought to broaden the application of the theories of the resource-based view (RBV), appropriability regime (AR), and dynamic capabilities (DC) that explain the internal means by which strategic resources can be enhanced but challenged AR’s general acceptance of tight legal mechanisms for IP protection as unnecessary. The inter-organisational theory of resource-dependence (RDT) that looks at partner relationship complexities was also considered in the context of IPTC. At the strategic level, an enhanced RDT model would demonstrate how SMEs choose IPTC partnerships (dependent, interdependent or independent) based on the SME’s control over the DTBC resources. At the operations level, it is useful to apply the twolevel strategy to secure, develop and deploy strategic resources by combining inward (RBV) and outward-looking approaches (RDT). Keywords: intellectual property, commercialisation, polytechnic, technology transfer, SME.