Validating an antimicrobial technology for the advanced wound care market

Abstract

Small firms often have a reputation to be radically innovative although many lack the resources to develop their products independently. Opening up their innovation process is one way that they can successfully introduce a product to the market. Plenty of research has been carried out to help larger companies identify firms whose innovation they could capitalize on. However, the literature is lacking for the opposite situation, in which firms seek the most suitable companies to share their knowledge with. One of the problems encountered by firms developing a potentially radical innovation is the uncertainty about what the technology will be used for. Before they can open up their innovation process, they need to identify the potential market they want to enter. A market validation of the technology with the proposed end users is often useful in order to find out the factors that influence product adoption. This was undertaken in the present study for a small biotechnology firm, Kode Biotech, which is developing a novel antimicrobial technology. This was done by using a qualitative approach; interviewing health professionals. The findings of the study show that there are 5 factors that influence the adoption decision of health care professionals for wound care products – the product’s attributes, the perceived cost of the product, evidence that the product is effective, organisational & environmental factors, and individual user characteristics. Additionally, there are conflicts between these factors because wound care is context specific and the importance of each factor differs according to the specific situation. This might be resolved by Kode developing a more focussed value proposition for its product. Furthermore, this research found that there are many wound care companies that Kode could partner with. In particular, there are 4 companies that they should focus on because the Pharmaceutical Management Agency (PHARMAC) supplies their products to hospitals and the healthcare professionals interviewed are already aware of them.