Exploring Methods for Further Development of Projects in a Cluster Initiative Context : Bridging the commercial handover gap

Abstract: With the growing concern about resource overconsumption and its consequences, the need for sustainable development is becoming more and more crucial. Sustainability brings about some challenges that are simply too great for any organization to tackle alone and this calls for higher degree of stakeholder engagement in sustainable innovation efforts. A way to achieve this is through clusters, which are geographic concentrations of companies that benefit from being located in the same area. The advantages with clustering are often mediated by so called cluster initiatives which are responsible for developing activities and services for the cluster members. Cluster initiatives usually apply a Triple Helix approach to mediate between private organizations, educational institutions and the government, and one important task with this is to assist technologies in the transition from governmental funding to private sector financing, commonly referred to as the Valley of Death.This thesis is a case study at an organization located in Sweden, similar to a cluster initiative, with the primary objective of bridging the so-called Valley of Death. The goal of the study was (1) to explore the preconditions for further development of (partly) publicly funded projects, after governmental grands have been terminated, in a cluster initiative coordinator context, and (2) to develop a new project model that could be implemented at the case organization to increase the rate of which the case organization’s projects are commercialized. Several studies have made extensive quantitative research on cluster initiatives. Quantitative measures must however be combined with operationally-based qualitative indicators which is why this study focused on qualitative interviews, analyses of project documentation and workshops, as a means of conducting the research.Within the Valley of Death, two gaps were discovered, which occurred when projects where handed over between organizations. By drawing upon goal setting theory, impact evidence, Technology Readiness Levels and Commercial Readiness index, the thesis developed a project model and a project classification system that served the case organization both intra-organizationally and with the potential of improving inter-organizational cooperation and project handover.