Barriers to Technology Commercialization in International Development: Analyzing the Multiple-Conjunctural Causal Effects of Success-Impeding Factors (A Focus on KOICA's CTS Program)

Purpose: This study examines the factors and factor combinations that impede the success of Creative Technology Solution (CTS) projects, a recently introduced development cooperation approach in Korea that prioritizes science and technology innovation and private sector involvement in the field of development cooperation. Originality: This study pioneers the examination of technology commercialization cases in development cooperation, an area unexplored by both technology entrepreneurship and development cooperation academics. It goes beyond identifying individual factors to analyze conjunctural causal effects of multiple factors impeding project success. It also provides practical implications on which factors to address first for CTS project success. Methodology: A total of 23 CTS project end-of-project evaluation reports were subjected to qualitative content analysis (QCA) in order to identify the factors that impede the success of CTS projects. Furthermore, fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fs/QCA) was employed to examine the ways in which combinations of factors impede project success. Result: The analysis identified four main impeding factors: inadequate preliminary research, inadequate project design, inadequate implementing organisation capacity, and inadequate stakeholder cooperation and communication. Of these, the two most significant factors impeding the success of CTS projects are poor preliminary research and poor project design. When these two factors co-occur, the likelihood of project failure is high, even in the absence of any particular issue with the capacity of the implementing organisation and stakeholder cooperation and communication. Conclusion and Implication: In order to enhance the probability of success for CTS projects, it is imperative to reinforce the preliminary research and project design, as these have been identified as the main impeding factors.