Science-to-business marketing

Introduction to science-to-business marketing

Science-to-Business (S2B) Marketing aims at the use of marketing principles for the area of ​​science, supporting the successful marketing of research competencies, capabilities and results from a research institution to its research customers. ^[1] The objective is to develop, test and provide new models, instruments and proceedings for research marketing that enable universities and research institutions to market their research more effectively. The approach to business marketing, Marketing and Technology & Innovation Marketing.

The special feature of S2B Marketing is the determination of the market, in particular, industry, as the starting point for all research activities. S2B is generally focused on technology-intensive departments but can also be applied in all disciplines of research. The industry is involved in research and development is identified as the key target market. This leads to research customers, who are willing to pay for scientific research, being the center of consideration.

Research impact – the need for science / industry interaction

Today’s marketplace is characterized by increased competition, rapid change and a shift towards knowledge-based economies. This development is fostered by factors such as rapid development, globalization and the maturing of domestic markets. With innovation Enabling an economy’s success thesis under conditions ^[2] [3] research HAS Become a key driver in economic performance. ^[4] Extensive outsourcing of research to specialized institutions in the field of linkages between industry and universities. ^{[4] [5] [6] [7]} These relationships and marketing projects provide a high potential for fostering innovation, leading to a particular attention to the management of technology marketing processes.

In the last decade, both private organizations and their institutions have increased their combined efforts to foster the transfer of knowledge, in order to respond to their changing markets and to the worldwide speed of innovation. ^[7]Especially, the great significance of innovation is regarded as the catalyst for an extended orientation towards University-Industry-Relationships. Taken into consideration the global tendency towards a decrease in public research funding, the commercialization of scientific research is one of the most important challenges for innovative research and development. For the purpose of establishing efficient collaborations between industrial and entrepreneurial partners, researchers are required to introduce the dimension of their scientific work more strongly. S2B Marketing helps to successfully market research and strengthens the relationship between research organizations and industry.

Organizations involved in science-to-business marketing

Essentially there are two main actors in the marketing process: research institutions and industry or government departments.

1. Research organizations build closer links with industry in:

• commercializes research
• allow academics to gain responsibility
• generate additional income for further research
• improve their market-oriented acting and thinking ^{[8] [8] [9]}
• motivational and provid-

2. Industry engages research institutions for a number of reasons:

• the successful innovation of new products and services
• ever fiercer competition inevitably requires considerable efforts of both companies and universities in order to maintain competitiveness
• Business require innovation, but do not always have the ability to finance to undertake the required research ^[1]
• Industry attempts to specifically benefits from:

– Access to public funds

– Access to university research results

– Access to university skills and innovation capacity

• Research offers businesses the possibility to have tasks by a new, external perspective and by applying new methods, resulting in an improvement of both the innovation and the business success of a company.
• Cooperation with universities enables companies to maintain or even improve competitiveness in dynamic market environments. ^[8] [10]

3. Furthermore, society benefits from the cooperation between research and industry in a number of ways:

• increase economic growth – without change, productivity and productivity growth would increase to increase productivity and productivity, finite sources of improvement
• strengthen the regional economy
• commercialization of research, which in turn can transform lives.
• improvement of living standards

Process of Science-to-Business Marketing

Challenges in the Science-to-Business Interaction

Extracting value in the form of research-based technologies and innovations from the University and research organizations is a challenge faced by technology transfer offices, regional development agencies and Governments, and, of course, by Universities and business organizations the world over. ^[13] Despite the illustrated prominence of technology marketing and university-industry links, little research and few suitable approaches exist. In fact, the challenge is not a lack of technology or entrepreneurs / capitalists / companies (from here referred to as ‘partners of technology transfer’) with needs to receive the technology, but it is the transfer and partnering process itself most attention.

Differing priorities between research institutions and industry and / or entrepreneurs have been sighted as a reason for this. ^[14] For instance, research institutions are, contrary to result- / market-oriented businesses, more process-oriented and primary focused on new knowledge. These different types of research objectives, coupled with differences in organizational cultures, ^[7] relate to different behaviors exhibited by researchers and business people. This in turn has a significant impact on the creation of partnerships and a successful transfer of technologies. These issues have been proven to be very complex, with a deep-rooted misunderstanding between the two. ^[15] Therefore, a strategic marketing approach is needed in order to assess and extract entrepreneurial value from University research most effectively.

However, a large number of these linkages fail ^[15] and a recent study on information and communication technology industries. ^[16] Despite their importance and frequent failures, however, research on university-industry relations (UIR) and the factors influencing their fate, especially from a marketing perspective, remains sparse. However, there is a growing research understanding in the area of ​​Science-to-Business Marketing.

References