Commercialisation of academic research - a sensemaking analysis of key participants' roles

In spite of the growing interest for commercialisation of university-based research, the ways by which academics can actually engage with commercial activities has remained underexplored. This article addresses the question through an intensive case study of a two-year commercialisation project in which one university, companies, and intermediary organisations worked together to identify business opportunities for academic life science knowledge. The research draws on multiple sources of data, such as participant observation, interviews, and documents. The objective of the study is two-fold: 1) to illustrate the commercialisation process; 2) to use sensemaking analysis to expose how the different parties come to understand commercialisation and their specific roles in the process. The findings indicate that commercialisation is produced in the constantly revolving interaction between action and sensemaking. The academic researchers' participation becomes a key issue and their hybrid role at the intersection of academia and business is heavily debated.