The external commercialisation of technology in emerging domains – the antecedents, consequences, and dimensions of desorptive capacity

Figures & data

Figure 1. Conceptual model regarding the relationship between management innovation, desorptive capacity, and external technology commercialization.

Table 1. Characteristics of the sample with organisations completing the first measurement (n = 84).

Organisation size (employees)	Organisation age (years)	Organisation origin	Organisational orientation
1–10 (14.8%)	0–2 (9.6%)	Europe (45.9%)	Commercial (52.9%)
11–50 (18.5%)	3–5 (9.6%)	North America (41.2%)	Non-commercial (47.1%)
51–250 (16%)	6–10 (11%)	Asia-Pacific (11.8%)
251–1000 (16%)	11–20 (15.1%)	South America (1.2%)
1001–5000 (16%)	21–50 (11%)
5001–20,000 (8.6%)	51–100 (16.4%)
>20,000 (9.9%)	>100 (27.4%)

Figure 2. Structural equation model. Effect sizes: DE = direct effect; TE = total effect; IE = indirect effect. The total effect (consisting of both the direct and indirect effect) is given only when an indirect effect was measured. For the relationship between management innovation and external technology commercialization, only the indirect effect is given (the direct effect was found to be insignificant). *** = p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; * p < 0.05; † p < 0.1. Organization age was used to control the dependent variable.

Table 2. Mean, standard deviation (S.D.), and correlations.

	Mean	S.D.	1	2	3	4	5
1. External technology commercialisation	3.17	0.81	–
2. Explorative desorptive capacity	3.24	0.68	0.65**	–
3. Exploitative desorptive capacity	3.12	0.71	0.57**	0.72**	–
4. Management innovation	3.25	0.75	0.14	0.30**	0.30**	–
5. Organisation size (logarithmic)	5.69	3.00	0.11	−0.09	−0.10	0.06	–

∗∗p < 0.01; *p < 0.05.

Table 3. Regression analysis.

	Coefficient	Standard error	T	P > [t]	[95% confidence interval]
Explorative desorptive capacity <–
Management innovation	0.30	0.09	3.19	0.001	0.12	0.48
Exploitative desorptive capacity <–
Explorative desorptive capacity	0.70	0.081	8.65	<0.001	0.54	0.86
Management innovation	0.15 / 0.20	0.07 / 0.069	2.04 / 2.90	0.041 / 0.003	0.006 / 0.06	0.29 / 0.33
External technology commercialization (ETC) <–
Explorative desorptive capacity	0.31 / 0.32	0.15 / 0.11	2.14 / 2.89	0.032 / 0.004	0.03 / 0.10	0.61 / 0.54
Exploitative desorptive capacity	0.43	0.14	3.04	0.002	0.15	0.71
Management innovation	−0.09 / 0.30	0.10 / 0.078	−0.87 / 3.92	0.38 / <0.001	−0.30 / 0.15	0.11 / 0.46
Organisation size (logarithmic)	0.037	0.023	1.60	0.11	−0.01	0.08

Notes: The dependent variables of the analysed regressions are given in bold italics (< –); both direct and indirect effects of relevant variables are given (direct effect / indirect effect).

Table A1. Survey variables and construct items.

Variable type	Variable	Construct items (including key aspect of variable, when applicable)
Dependent variable	External technology commercialisation	In relation to our direct competitors, …  • we are successful in external technology commercialisation (implementation) • we have considerably higher revenues from external technology commercialisation (financial gains) • we use external technology commercialisation more successfully in achieving our strategic goals (strategic goals)
Independent variable	Management innovation	In order to respond to market changes, …  rules and procedures within our organisation are regularly renewed/updated we regularly make changes to our employees’ tasks and functions our organisation regularly implements/updates new management systems the policy with regard to compensation has been changed in the last three years the intra- and inter-departmental communication structure within our organisation is regularly updated we regularly alter/update certain elements of the organisational structure
Mediating variable	Explorative desorptive capacity	Our technologies are usually not suitable for external commercialisation purposes (searching; inverse item) We regularly monitor the opportunities for external commercialisation of our technologies (monitoring) We have frequent external interactions to present our technologies for external commercialisation (monitoring) It takes quite some time for external players to understand how our technologies may be useful for them (initiation; inverse item)
	Exploitative desorptive capacity	We constantly inform external parties about the consequences of our technological advancement for their products and services (customer interaction) We periodically meet external parties and discuss consequences of our technologies for their product development and marketing effort (customer interaction) It is very challenging for us to grasp opportunities for external technology commercialisation (organisational setting and mechanisms; inverse item) It is clearly known how to externally commercialise a technology (organisational setting and mechanisms) We have decent organisational settings and mechanisms for managing external technology commercialisation projects (organisational setting and mechanisms) The tasks of the different people involved in technology transfer are coordinated well (coordination of personal tasks) For every external technology commercialisation project, there is a project leader who adequately coordinates all technology transfer activities (coordination of personal tasks)

Table A2. Results of the multi-trait scaling.

Item	Scale	Scale 1 – ETC	Scale 2 – MI	Scale 3 – explorative DC	Scale 4 – exploitative DC
ETC – item 1	1	0.606804761	0.194605739	0.66518326	0.61269193
ETC – item 2	1	0.777136879	−0.004917841	0.53282165	0.47114098
ETC – item 3	1	0.730434434	0.018605081	0.39172488	0.39311114
MI – item 1	2	0.004034976	0.546074695	0.31103747	0.29166271
MI – item 2	2	0.078104688	0.646550563	0.28732629	0.22953361
MI – item 3	2	0.033363167	0.741004166	0.23599919	0.26161837
MI – item 4	2	−0.049127396	0.388885140	0.02479422	−0.04670898
MI – item 5	2	0.127697850	0.640357747	0.23930271	0.36773486
MI – item 6	2	0.141966965	0.719859008	0.28639071	0.35022055
explorative DC – item 1	3	0.392602624	0.114466389	0.58928810	0.60243285
explorative DC – item 2	3	0.493823480	0.212754845	0.49144529	0.64081491
explorative DC – item 3	3	0.613842476	0.327048829	0.69273347	0.77312535
explorative DC – item 4	3	0.366561811	0.288220598	0.50394479	0.45031046
explorative DC – item 5	3	0.138652999	0.138659428	0.28346572	0.18875412
explorative DC – item 6	3	0.346773949	0.126301477	0.28795848	0.30994580
exploitative DC – item 1	4	0.341559191	0.218885289	0.45348898	0.53292185
exploitative DC – item 2	4	0.131998617	0.057880717	0.41272806	0.31986928
exploitative DC – item 3	4	0.464925179	0.191252498	0.57162790	0.59264710
exploitative DC – item 4	4	0.535559302	0.172158751	0.61611998	0.66146214
exploitative DC – item 5	4	0.573062102	0.295580733	0.67924970	0.72144168
exploitative DC – item 6	4	0.338402506	0.307862265	0.46071747	0.66388075
exploitative DC – item 7	4	0.384470394	0.342603584	0.60061034	0.61435500