Understanding the challenges to the development of the ecosystem of Innovation Management of Universities and their Spinouts: A case study of England

Universities play a crucial role in underpinning innovation and entrepreneurial activities. By commercialising their academic research, they prove their impact and the value they are adding to industry and society in the wider innovation ecosystem. While many universities have systems in place to support the development of new ideas into a viable commercial outcome, others are still struggling to successfully translate and commercialise their innovation. The aim of this study is to find the current landscape of commercialisation of university research and its spinout in the existing innovation ecosystem across England from 2010-2020. It will also uncover some of the determinants or barriers of university research commercialisation. It is an exploratory study and the research was done in a sequential manner. Firstly the data about Intellectual Property and Spinouts was retrieved from HESA and were analysed using quantitative methods. Secondly, based on that, the survey was sent to the sample universities. The study found that majority of the analysed metrics have skewed data with only handful of universities doing exceptionally well in commercialising their research, while others are still struggling to navigate the system. It discovered targeted funding, expert guidance, networking and lack of skilled staff as some of the contributing factors in creating less research impact. The findings of this study intend to be helpful to all the stakeholders (universities, businesses, government, society) involved in the wider innovation ecosystem and provides some suggestions that can be adopted to increase the universities research impact.

URI

https://bradscholars.brad.ac.uk/handle/10454/20951

Type

Thesis

Qualification name

PhD