Business Planning as an Adaptive Capability for Technology Commercialization in Developing Economies: An Integrative Review
Abstract
The commercial value of technology emerges not when a prototype works, but when the innovation can be produced, financed, adopted and sustained. This integrative review examines how business planning supports technology commercialization in developing economies. Drawing on entrepreneurship, innovation management, technology-transfer and development literature, and anchored in the Resource-Based View and Dynamic Capabilities Theory, the study synthesizes global, African and Nigerian evidence. The review identifies four recurring mechanisms through which planning contributes to commercialization: market validation, resource orchestration, staged financial discipline, and organizational learning and stakeholder coordination. The evidence also shows that these mechanisms depend on alliances, absorptive and applied-research capabilities, user engagement, finance, infrastructure and institutional quality. The paper concludes that business planning is most valuable as an adaptive capability rather than a static funding document. It recommends evidence-led, milestone-based and partnership-oriented commercialization, especially in institutionally constrained environments. These findings are particularly relevant to research institutions and technology ventures operating under resource and institutional constraints.
Keywords
business planning; technology commercialization; adaptive capability; innovation management; developing economies; Nigeria
References
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