High-Tech is for Everyone: A Case Study of Commercialization to the Restaurant Industry

Abstract: Commercialization has been recognized as one of the most difficult phases of the innovation process. Failure rates are high, even for products with the potential to address real needs and deliver real customer value. This master's thesis explores commercialization in an even more challenging business context than the typical case. First, the innovating company is an early startup with limited resources. Second, the innovation is high-tech and radical for the potential users. Third, the prospective market is the Swedish restaurant industry, which turns out to have implications for how standard commercialization theories can be applied. The central methodology is a business case in two parts. The first part is a review of the commercializing startup and the second part is an in-depth study of the Swedish restaurant industry focusing on operational efficiency, technology adoption, attitudes, and networks. Participant observation and documentary analysis are the main methods for data collection regarding the company, whereas the prospective market is primarily investigated through interviews and a literature review. Several key challenges for commercialization were identified. These included certain mindsets and network dependencies that distinguished the prospective market, as well as credibility and bundling problems that distinguished the conditions of the business case startup. In the end, a commercialization strategy is proposed for addressing the identified key challenges. This includes the identification of a target market and the formulation of a marketing mix. Lean commercialization is the core of the proposed strategy that is suggested to exercise an iterative approach based on market testing.