Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
submittedVersion
Publication Date
2-2019
Abstract
Successfully developed academic inventions have the potential to spawn new technological domains, form the basis of thriving business ventures, and improve the well-being of society. However, evaluating whether an early-stage scientific invention truly has such potential is extremely difficult, and financially backing such inventions is highly risky. And yet, organizations and their evaluators still back some of these inventions with resources for further development. We investigate this puzzle to pinpoint how and why evaluators decide to offer resource commitments at early stages, despite the red flags raised using standard evaluation criteria. Many academic inventions need these initial resources to dispel concerns regarding their commercial feasibility, so evaluators need to take a leap of faith with their support to prematurely avoid eliminating high-potential opportunities. We tested our theory using text analysis on nearly 700 invention evaluation reports written by a university’s technology transfer experts. Our results revealed that evaluators backed inventions based on their feasibility (overcoming doubt and assessing maturity) and desirability (background familiarity and scientific complexity). Using the context of the research laboratory, our study insights can be applied to many management situations in which early-stage opportunities are assessed for resource commitments under high uncertainty.
Keywords
early-stage scientific inventions, opportunity evaluation criteria, high-risk opportunities, text analysis, resource commitments, entrepreneurial action
Discipline
Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations | Strategic Management Policy
Research Areas
Strategy and Organisation
Publication
Research Policy
ISSN
0048-7333
Identifier
10.1016/j.respol.2019.02.004
Publisher
Elsevier
Embargo Period
2-13-2019
Citation
KIM, Phillip H.; Reddi KOTHA; FOURNÉ, Sebastian P. L.; and COUSSEMENT, Kristof.
Taking leaps of faith: Evaluation criteria and resource commitments for early-stage inventions. (2019). Research Policy.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6086
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2019.02.004
Included in
Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons, Strategic Management Policy Commons