Transitioning international development projects to sustainable businesses : the challenges in commercializing a research project and the engineer-entrepreneurs behind the product

Abstract

Professionals that work on designing products and developing businesses for the developing world experience challenges unique to international development in addition to common challenges in product design and business development. However, there are far more professionals working in product development than in business development. Majority of international development projects come from research in academic institutions and the number of research-based spin-off start ups working on commercializing the technologies is significantly less than the number of other research-based spin-offs. This study looks at the characteristics of founders that transition products from research projects to companies, their motivations, the challenges they face, and how they overcame the challenges through a case study method.