Summary of the results

unsure of the term. Only one interviewee appeared to clearly have experience of the subject and instantly recognized the concept.

“Yes, for example at the moment we are applying for such a cluster. It is useful. Its structure is very critical, but often these clusters are assembled from research level who are usually pretty good at selecting firms.”

”In this entity into which we are applying for we are all software houses producing IoT-solutions and monitoring of industrial processes, but we are all in a different side of the cube and we have our own focus in what we do. For example, one of our competitors who is involved in the project is more in process industry, and we have zero interest in that industry branch, so we are not competitors. There it is possible to do cooperation across branch borders with firms who are really deep in their own game, as we are in ours.”

“It can create cooperation possibilities, shared products and in theory even a merger if we both have a functional solution for our own business, but we could improve each other’s solutions. They are very fruitful platforms and the way they’ve been built so far has been really smart. They are useful. That is why big companies join such.”

According to the interviewee the main responsibility of a running an innovation ecosystem often lies on university or on one or a few pilot customers. They often want to leverage from the ecosystem they’ve built and therefore are unwilling to share the results with others.

According to the research commercialization process of high technology in the 2020s does not vastly differ from how it has been perceived in prior research described in Chapter 2.2.

It begins with an idea or problem recognized by a company staff member or a customer which leads to initial product development through several estimations of idea’s feasibility with different means (e.g., market research, expense calculations, and risk evaluations). Iterations and partial overlap of phases are common. Transitions between phases are difficult to perceive for many companies.

Starting phase is followed by e.g., assembling test groups, collecting feedback, product development iteration rounds, figuring out supply chains and marketing channels, arranging external or internal financing, and applying to pass regulations. During the ending phase companies mostly finalize product design, secure supply chains, do actual sales work, estimate marketing effectiveness, and provide product support.

Regarding commercializing specifically to international markets, the research results showed that companies typically first commercialize their products to Finnish markets before going abroad.

International expansion is often in mind as a goal already from inception, albeit as an idea a few years away. The empirical research did not produce a lot of information regarding internationalization aspect of commercialization, but the interviewees discussed that the same domestic commercialization processes do not apply to other international locations even in close vicinity and entering foreign markets is more expensive and complicated than domestic markets. Therefore, comprehensive preparations, networks, and localizing of marketing and sales is crucial. For more details see Chapters 4.3.1. and 4.3.2.

According to the research, a central attribute in commercialization process of high technology in the 2020s is lasting customer presence. Customer is closely involved already from the initial idea R&D and design phase and might be closely present until the end of the commercialization process. Online marketing and social media play a significant role in marketing because of globalization and digitalization, but competition has also increased, and thus effective online marketing is more difficult than before. However, online marketing is relatively cheap to experiment due to abundant data

provided by digital platforms. Also, digitalization has lowered customer’s hesitation to try new technologies.

Regulations affect vastly companies’ high technology commercialization in the 2020s. Various regulations have increased which can hamper the process. To mitigate unnecessary inertia, companies should look for streamlining possibilities by utilizing automation, clear written processes, and other codified knowledge. Moreover, market situation can change nowadays rapidly and surprisingly regarding customer needs and regulations. Therefore, commercialization should be attempted to do in a flexible manner.

A potentially significant finding regarding research question 1 and a theoretical implication for future research is the idea of having multiple commercialization rails, e.g., marketing, product development and financing. The idea of multiple simultaneous processes regarding commercialization was brought up by three interviewees.

4.4.2. Discussion on research question 2

The interviews offered several hints that shed light on research question 2 ”why problems occur in international commercialization process of high technology in the 2020s?”. Like theory in Chapter 2.2.3.

suggests, answers can be sought from the internal and external factors of the company. Internal factors are the following:

1. “Back then we did not have even that little amount of process that we now have.” Processes within companies are not sufficiently planned or structured which leads to not recognizing the limits between commercialization phases and doing transitions based on instinct. This may lead to inefficiency and lack of control.

2. “We are not utilizing digitalization enough.” Digitalization is not leveraged as much it could be e.g., through automatization.

3. “If we cannot create a catchy, brief description of the product’s purpose and benefits, is it already a big enough stumbling block that it will spoil our marketing activities completely?” Doing concise marketing for an innovative hard-to-define novelty product is problematic because companies are creating something new without a previous commercial reference.

4. “Marketing is not our deep expertise.” Companies have lack of comprehensive marketing expertise which leads to drawbacks in marketing and internationalization.

5. “We have very little experience in internationalization. Lots of failures. I don’t know why.” Too little experience in internationalization.

6. “Commercialization has been close only now after knowing we will pass regulations and get to do sales.”

Not being familiar with theoretical commercialization process structure and therefore possibly neglecting relevant matters, e.g., early commercialization during product development.

7. IPR is not leveraged so comprehensively or systematically as it could be.

Findings regarding commercialization problems that derive from external factors of the company do not reveal anything particularly novel compared to prior research. The summarized findings are as follows:

1. Increased regulations in both domestic and international markets.

2. Increased competition due to e.g., globalization.

3. Increased speed of change in market situations.

4. Differing cultures when expanding to international markets.

5. Insufficient private capital market in Finland that necessitates foreign investors.

6. Liability of smallness which forces to e.g., consent to the will of bigger companies.

7. Poor regional open innovation culture in past years (according to one interviewee).

8. Too few internationally successful B2B-saas-companies who with their success would create traction for others (according to one interviewee).

4.4.3. Discussion on research question 3

All in all, the empirical research offered multiple insights on research question 3 ”How can the identified challenges be solved with the available means from companies themselves and with the resources provided by external stakeholders?”. Regarding past studies the findings strengthen previous research discoveries (see Chapter 2.2.4.) and provide some new insights to the subject. The means are summarized as follows.

1. Having concise and versatile teams designated to certain subjects, e.g., marketing, that comprise required know-how and especially experience from the subject.

2. Formulating processes with clear phases in written form which are evaluated regularly.

3. Investigating possibilities of leveraging from digitalization in firm’s internal processes.

4. Engaging in open innovation projects. Companies should share a common industry, but the main business sector must be different. In addition, according to the research it can be beneficial if the other company or one of the companies in a group is larger than the others. According to the interviews failures have happened when companies have been direct competitors, relatively small and as a result e.g., financing has been a problem.

5. Developing regional culture regarding entrepreneurship, open innovation, and commercialization services. The interviews indicated that one of the main reasons for challenges in several areas is lack of experience and knowledge. The more possibilities companies have in learning from experienced ones the more they might avoid the pitfalls.

6. Developing external innovation services to help small technology companies access bigger customer entities. One interviewee stated that if hospitals want to start using new innovations it needs to be done through research facilities, universities, development ecosystems or through test labs or living labs.

7. Fostering strong mentoring culture with experienced companies and entrepreneurs. According to many interviewees mentoring has been beneficial to their company. One option is that the mentors would receive some incentive for their efforts.

8. Networking and building position in networks. Both aspects were emphasized both in the literature review and in the empirical research. This can be done e.g., through sharing knowledge,

helping others, or leveraging from IPR. According to the interviewees IPR can facilitate for instance getting prestige, interest from investors, and invitations to projects.

As described in Chapter 4.3.3. the case companies are already implementing practices to cope with the challenges related to high technology commercialization in the 2020s. Many of them are related to building networks, being close to customers and streamlining processes through digitalization. The following activities were also mentioned.

“We have aimed at building a really good board of directors. Such that works on an advisory board principle. We have quite credible people there who have done such things before that are our biggest challenges. We benefit from their consultations vastly.”

“We are introducing a document management system and that way have aimed at streamlining our processes and enhancing activities.”

”Every (open innovation) case we’ve attended has been such that we’ve been asked there, so it’s been kind of closing the circle of building an expert role and it’s marketing communication strategy. So, it is recommendable also for other technology firms to strive there.”

“For us making good instructions and software deployment training have been important. We use lots of energy and resources into trying to do understandable and trustworthy interfaces. Design plays a major role in new technology.”