The Role of Social Capital, Strategic Networking and Word of Mouth Communication in the Commercialisation of Innovation

Abstract

Commercialisation is the end point of the innovation management process. It needs to be recognised as being as much a social process as an economic one. Critical to the success of commercialisation is social capital, which is a nebulous and ill-defined concept, but one that has not been given sufficient recognition within the mainstream literature relating to the commercialisation of innovation. Connected with this is the role of word of mouth (WOM) communication that serves as a means of transferring information about new products and services throughout a market. This chapter examines the nature of social capital and WOM within the context of commercialisation. It argues that both have not been given sufficient attention in the role they play in the commercialisation process.

Assessing organizational innovativeness – evidence from corporate narratives

“…Communication of innovation is a prerequisite for open innovation. Open innovation goes beyond innovation marketing, i.e., the communication of innovation to customers to help to diffuse and commercialize new products and services in the market (Mazzarol, 2013;Steinhoff and Trommsdorff, 2013). Open innovation encompasses interactive communication with various external stakeholders throughout all stages of the innovation process to create innovation (Chesbrough, 2006;Pfeffermann et al, 2013).…”