Identify and Explanation the Factors that Affects in Commercialization of University Research Using Triangulation Model

Changes in the economic and social environments caused the traditional approach to universities and research centers as the producers of knowledge to be revised and a new approach to be configured. In this approach, the universities are more responsible for turning their research achievements into the factors of economic growth, prosperity and society wealth and should make more attempts to transfer and employ knowledge in economic, social and industrial areas so as to be interpreted as the commercialization of research results and accepted as one of the main missions and functions of universities besides the education and research. Lack of a comprehensive and integrated framework for the commercialization of research findings in universities and research centers was the salient issue identified in the literature. Presenting a conceptual model in response to the question “how to commercialize research results”, it is expected to solve a real problem of universities and research centers and it answers the theoretical gaps in this study field. This paper probes for a comprehensive conceptual framework with an exploratory study and comparative to identify the most important factors which form the background to achieve commercialization and classification of factors on the basis of the characteristics of each component/ factor/ variable within a Tri-Category conceptual framework. With combination of variables and generation of the three dimensions of context, structure, content, the conceptual framework of this study was developed. The proposed conceptual framework was developed with three rounds of Delphi method by collecting data of the 25 experts, and model validation study was presented at the end. Based on the findings, the eighth stage of the commercialization process were identified and 29 factors that affect the commercialization of research, consensus was achieved (Kendall coefficient = 0.804). Also, analysis of expert opinions with Friedman test, Showed that contextual factors the first and the top rated, Content and structure factors were ranked second and third in priorities of panel members in affecting on commercialization of university research.