Commercialization
in university has increasingly been considered as a complementary and
attractive solution to new technology innovation and product marketing.
However, the rate of commercialization amongst academic researchers and
inventors has been discouraging. The aim of this study was to identify
the problems and issues on the process of innovation and
commercialization and then improve the commercialization rate in
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). To achieve these goals seven
factors were examined to identify how they affect on the university’s
innovation and commercialization. These factors were market driven
innovation, financial support, marketing and selling strategy, improve
technology, time to market and time constrain, the relationship between
university and industry as well as the university policy and system with
the special focus on the the relationship between university and
industry and its effect on the commercialization rate in UTM. This study
was based on a qualitative research method and was designed to use a
case study approach. A total of sixteen face-to-face interviews were
conducted. Respondents were chosen from inventors, academic researchers
and Innovation and Commercialization Centre staff in UTM. The researcher
utilized the content-analysis approach to analyze the data obtained
from the semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that, the
most critical factor was relationship between university and industry
and role of financial support. This study also addressed the
implications and recommendation for research and practitioners.
Suggestions were provided to enhance the role of academic researchers
and inventors toward commercialization.