Proposing a Model for Commercialization of Entrepreneurial Ideas in University Incubators

Abstract
The purpose of this research is to provide the scientific and empirical components that influence the commercialization of entrepreneurial ideas that lead to success in selling these products to the market. For this aim quantitative and qualitative methods are used interchangeably. The information gathering tool in the qualitative section is an interview, which was used to increase the internal validity of pluralistic methods and member surveys. Also, in a quantitative part of the research, a questionnaire was used, and for measuring reliability, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used with allowable level of 0.87. To assess the validity of the questionnaire, expert review of the content was applied. The research shown that the main impact on building a successful commercial product and sales effectiveness was caused by needs and customer feedback, innovative advertising, market trends and product innovations.
Introduction
One of the main reasons for the pace of technology development in industrialized countries is to pay attention to the commercialization process of the internal investigations results. It has been identified that, the lack of ability to commercialize and implement research achievements in new products and processes and supply them to the market presents one of the major weaknesses of the industrialization process in developing countries. However, the universities’ growth centers seem to be one of the most useful mechanisms for encouraging, consulting, and networking new startups (Carletto, Corral, Guelfi, 2017).
In this research, we study the commercialization of ideas in the growth center of Islamic Azad University by interviewing corporate executives and studying the behavior of companies that are active in this center. Also we provide the scientific and empirical components that influence the commercialization of entrepreneurial ideas that lead to success in selling these products to the market.
One of the main challenges of innovators in the technology development process, is how to transform new technologies into products and services that bring economic returns to their founders and investors. In the other words, the main problem in this process is not invention, but its commercialization. Therefore, the choice of a commercialization strategy is at the heart of the innovation and commercialization process, and it refers to the choice of the path that an organization intends to make from an innovation and products derived from it (Yadollahi Farsi, Jahangir, kalatehaei,2013) The missions of the university in the past were education and research. Today, due to the changes in the global environment and the change in the relationship between the three main operators in the national innovation systems (industry, government, and university), the third mission has been assigned to the university and that is university-based entrepreneurship and participation in the economic and social development of societies (Aronowitz, 2000).
In the entire commercialization process, the role of university and academic research can be supported as an up-to-date scientific model for entrepreneurs. Academic entrepreneurship can include all the entrepreneurial behaviors of academics, such as the creation of new companies in the university, the creation of centers for joint research with the industry, measures for the protection of intellectual property and the assignment of the results of research conducted at the university (Nikfarjam, Kiani Mavi, 2013).
Case Study
The statistical population of the research is the companies that are actives in the centers of university development in the Islamic Azad Universities. Accordingly, in the qualitative section, a theoretical sampling method was used to survey the ten employees at the growth center of Azad University of Qazvin. After coding and determining the categories a conceptual model was developed. Then, in a 2013 distributed in a sample of 153 entrepreneurs active in the growth centers of university units in north, south and west Tehran, and the results were analyzed.
Materials and Methods
In this paper, with the aim of developing a paradigm of commercialization of entrepreneurial ideas, a quantitative and qualitative methods are used interchangeably. Data gathering tools in the qualitative section include interviews and in the quantitative section is based on questionnaire. The reason for using the mixed research method is that in some past researches, only a few aspects of the commercialization phenomenon of entrepreneurial ideas have been considered, and others have been less investigated. In order to overcome these shortcomings, in the first stage, deep interviews were conducted with the growth center of the Islamic Azad University of Qazvin, and the commercialized entrepreneurial idea has been modeled with a qualitative approach and by using the data theory method with the help of the Strauss and Corbin model. Grounded theory is a qualitative research method that develops a theory using a data set. Then, in the second stage, with a quantitative approach, a questionnaire was distributed among the subspecialist companies of the Islamic Azad University growth centers, and after analyzing the data, suggestions were made for the success of the commercialization of ideas.
Discussion and Results
According to the final research model, the success of the commercialization of entrepreneurial ideas and the entry of innovative and entrepreneurial organizations into the centers of academic growth must first provide the conditions for the emergence of such investments. One of the indicators of the causal conditions is the presence of the first customers and the presence of the market. If an entrepreneur has a proper market research before marketing, he can take more confidence in marketing his idea. To do this, entrepreneurs must identify target markets and attractive and growing markets for their ideas and then commercialize them. With regard to early-stage entrepreneurs, the university can support the commercialization of the initial idea as a primary customer, or by communicating with industrial environments, it can transmit the industry’s needs to these entrepreneurs to ensure that the customer exists for the product.
 
 
Conclusion
As a summary of the research, it should be said that by offering value to customers in the form of a new idea, one can accept the demand market for a prestigious idea and, by providing appropriate pricing and offering discounts, somehow encourages customers to use the idea. This requires researches and developments at all stages of commercialization by taking into account the life span of the idea, and also considering the time, make fundamental changes to current ideas should be done in order to benefit from mutual benefits for the market as well as entrepreneurs.
Also, entrepreneurial teams can interact with the industry and the university in order to select new ideas among other ideas and after ensuring the product's functional strength to commercialize it. Of course, paying attention to the financial and technical feasibility and also the success in the laboratory conditions is one of the prerequisite of the new idea that is more important and more sensitive in the field of innovative ideas.