(China Petrochemical Engineering Technology Research Institute, Beijing 100 10 1)
Starting from the dual attributes of technical goods and assets, according to the situation of enterprises' own resources, the commercialization model of technology is selected for targeted evaluation and promotion, so as to promote technology to cross the "valley of death" of technology transformation and maximize technical benefits.
Technology commercialization, business model, valley of death
Research on technical and economic evaluation method
Based on the commercialization model
Ye Chao Hai
(China Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Beijing1001KLOC-0/,China)
Starting from the commodity and asset attributes of technology, according to the enterprise's own resources, the commercialization model of technology is selected to cross the "valley of death" of technological transformation and realize the maximization of technological benefits.
Keywords technology commercialization; Commercialization mode; Valley of death
The so-called business model of technology refers to the process and method of transforming technology into profit. Different users (who: resources and capabilities) use technology in different ways in different places (where: market segments and customers), which will create different degrees of value.
The initial technology or R&D achievement is a ticket, which is the first step to lay the foundation for restricting new entrants and providing conditions for the commercialization of subsequent technologies. The choice of technology commercialization mode is a function of the risk that technology developers are willing to take in order to achieve lofty goals, and it is also the "real decider" of technology promotion results and technology investment income. The evaluation point is shown in figure 1. At this time, enterprises are faced with the choice of different commercialization models, and different commercialization models have different cash flow curves. Therefore, technical and economic evaluation can not be ignored.
1 Dual Properties of Technology and Choice of Commercialization Mode
1. 1 Dual Properties of Technology
Technology or scientific research achievements have the dual attributes of commodity and capital, and the commodity attribute of technology refers to the attribute that it enters the production field through the technology market and brings benefits to enterprises; The asset attribute of technology refers to the attribute that technology combines with monetary capital, physical capital and other capitals, and directly enters the production field to create value for enterprises without going through the circulation field.
Figure 1 Cash flow of different business models
Technical commodity is the premise of the existence of technical capital. Only by recognizing the commodity nature of technological achievements can technological achievements be used as capital investment. Technical capital is the result of an investment behavior that gives up the current income and pursues greater income in the future. If enterprises can't regard technology as a marketable commodity, the market value of technology will inevitably depreciate, which will not only affect the return on technology investment, but also inhibit the enthusiasm of enterprises to invest in technology development.
1.2 Evaluation reasons based on business model
1) Not all technologies can be industrialized, and the development of technology is a funnel-shaped selection process. It is the law of scientific research development to reject projects that do not meet the goal of continuing research and development at each stage. On the assumption that all technologies can be industrialized, evaluating them does not conform to the general law of technological development, and is not conducive to enterprises to make comprehensive decisions according to their own resources, market competition and technological development prospects.
2) From the perspective of return on investment, it is impossible for an enterprise to have superior resources to commercialize all scientific research achievements, and self-investment for industrialization is not necessarily the best way.
3) Cooperative innovation is a strategic measure for enterprises to adapt to the change of world industrial structure and the trend of world economic integration. Cooperative innovation helps to shorten the innovation time, share the innovation cost and disperse the innovation risk, but the trend of cooperative research and development also creates obstacles for confidentiality. The more participants involved in a technology, the more difficult it is to protect technical secrets. The cooperation in R&D has laid a certain foundation for the cooperation in the commercialization stage and is an important driving force for the diversification of business models.
4) The investment in technology in the commercialization stage is greatly increased. IDG and other venture capital institutions and other technology investors are very enthusiastic about the incubation of new technologies, which provides diversified channels for technology investment and ways for technology research and development institutions to spread risks. Diversified investment mode will avoid the problems of waste of funds and low return on investment.
5) With the development of technology trading market, technology trading has become an important driving force to transform the mode of economic development. China Petrochemical has increased its cooperation with large domestic and foreign companies and research institutions by sharing intellectual property rights, cross-licensing or purchasing intellectual property rights, and a number of innovative technologies and products in the refining and chemical industry with independent intellectual property rights have gradually entered the international market. In 2008-20 1 1, the technology trade volume was nearly 5 billion yuan, of which the technology license reached 1 more than 100 million yuan.
1.3 commercial mode of alternative technology
Looking at the value of technology from both goods and assets, we can choose flexible technology commercialization mode or mode combination, and the optional modes are as follows (Figure 2):
Figure 2 Technology Commercialization Mode Selection Matrix
1.3. 1 for technology trading.
Technology transaction is the transfer of technology from the owner (technology provider) to the intended adopter (technology demander). Technology trading such as patent authorization and transfer is an important way to recover technology investment, promote the transformation of technology into productivity and promote the wide adoption of new technologies. In this mode, R&D institutions only need to perform technical consultation and service obligations in the subsequent commercialization process, and transfer production risks and market risks to technology recipients. Its characteristic is that the source and absorber of scientific and technological achievements are separated, which is not conducive to the formation of long-term, sustained and close cooperative relations.
1.3.2 Self-invested production and sales
When an enterprise has enough economic strength and management level to realize the industrialization of technology and can bear the risk of failure, it will keep technical secrets to the maximum extent and adopt the way of self-production and self-sale. In this mode, the source and absorber of scientific and technological achievements are integrated, and there is no intermediate link, which can not only reduce the transaction procedures and costs, but also save many troubles such as the leakage of achievements and other possible frictions. Self-production and self-marketing are more conducive to the application, matching and improvement of technological achievements. The three major oilfield service companies have achieved market monopoly by strictly keeping their own technical secrets and taking market risks on their own.
1.3.3 Cooperation with suppliers
When enterprises have a high degree of control over the commercial production resources of new technologies and a low degree of control over the market resources, they should look for enterprises with complementary resources in the market and cooperate with channels or manufacturers to speed up the market development, reduce the market development risks and realize the benefits of technologies as soon as possible.
1.3.4 Joint venture production
When the production resources controlled by an enterprise cannot meet the requirements of commercial production of technology, it should adopt the mode of joint production, obtain the production resources such as funds and equipment needed for commercial production of technology through proper disclosure of technical secrets, and make use of its own market channels and influence to maximize technological benefits.
1.3.5 combination of various ways
Maximize the value through the combination of various modes, increase the number of participants in the process of technology commercialization, mobilize the enthusiasm of participants at all levels, diversify the risk-taking subjects, and win more development opportunities for enterprises. Optional modes include: (1) manufacturing and selling main parts; (2) according to the market and/or business model; (3) Bundle sale or shaving blade mode; (4) The mode of combining manufacturing license with sales license can also be adopted, and manufacturing is closely related to products or services.
This paper will study the methods of technical and economic evaluation by taking two modes of technology trading and self-production and self-marketing as examples.
2. Influencing factors of technical and economic benefits
2. 1 technology transaction income factor
2. 1. 1 technology itself
The benefits of technology are related to the status of technology itself, such as the cost of technology development, the advanced nature of technology, the monopoly of technology, the maturity of technology itself, the legal status of technology, the life cycle of technology, the number of transfers and the profit level of the industry. Generally speaking, the more advanced, monopolistic, mature and less frequently transferred technology, the stronger its profitability and the higher its value. The practice of patent technology transfer at home and abroad shows that the most active patent with the highest transaction rate in the technology market is the patent granted for 3 ~ 5 years.
2. 1.2 Status of technology transfer subjects
The price of technology transaction is determined by both parties through negotiation, and the experience of technology transaction negotiation between both parties will affect the final transaction price. In addition, the profit after the transfer has a great relationship with the transferee's own conditions. The transferee's fund raising, technology acceptance ability, production scale, staff quality, management level and business strategy directly affect the scale and efficiency of technology commercialization. For the same technology, if the importer has strong production capacity, fast technology digestion and absorption, and strong market development ability, its income will be better correspondingly, and the technology transferor will naturally get more income.
2. 1.3 transfer or transaction conditions
The form of technology transfer is to transfer the ownership of technology or the right to use technology (also known as the right to implement). The profitability of these two transfers is very different. If the right to use is transferred, it depends on whether it is an exclusive transfer or multiple transfers. Compared with the transfer of the same technology by exclusive license, the price of the same technology is quite different. Because the exclusive licensing method deprives the licensor of the opportunity to sell the technology again, the licensor should raise the price of the transferred technology (Figure 3). According to the information provided by LES Japan Branch of International Licensee Association, if the sales commission rate of non-exclusive license is 4% ~ 5%, the sales commission rate of exclusive license is 6%. In addition, almost all contract terms are related to the price, especially the guarantee and compensation terms, payment and taxes have a greater impact on the contract price.
2. 1.4 technology trading environment
The substitutability and competitiveness of similar products will directly affect the sales profit and future profitability, whether it will drive the industry or crowd into the industry, the output and price of similar products, the average profit of the industry and the influence of policies. For technologies with few suppliers or even exclusive monopoly, the import price is high. However, for the technology with more suppliers and non-monopoly, suppliers will have to consider lowering the price to gain a competitive advantage.
2.2 Influencing factors of self-funded production
Enterprises need production resources such as capital, technology, product/technical secrets, equipment, tools and technical know-how, as well as market resources such as channels, transportation and trademarks. Before the commercialization of technology, enterprises pay more attention to technical know-how and product performance. And the effect of self-investment production depends on the availability and control ability of all resources.
2.3 Differences in profit models
In view of the differences in the above factors, there are differences in investment, operating expenses, risks, profit methods and capital return time between the two commercialization modes of technology trading and self-investment production. See table 1 for details.
Figure 3 Influencing factors of technology assets income
Table 1 Differences in profit models of different business models
sequential
3 Technical and economic evaluation method research
3. 1 Disposal of incurred R&D expenses
The new accounting standards require enterprises to distinguish between research stage expenditure and development stage expenditure, and define "research" and "development". "Research" refers to the original and planned investigation for acquiring and understanding new scientific or technical knowledge. "Development" refers to the application of research results or other knowledge to a plan or design before commercial production or the production of new or substantially improved materials, devices and products. The new intangible assets standard stipulates that the expenditure of internal research and development projects in the research stage should be included in the current profit and loss when it occurs. The purpose of pre-commercialization evaluation of technology is to choose a suitable commercialization model and conduct corresponding market guidance and promotion. The research cost incurred at this time is a sunk cost and does not affect the current decision-making behavior. Therefore, when judging whether the commercialization model of technology projects is feasible or comparing the income levels of various commercialization models, the research expenses incurred are not included in the cash outflow.
3.2 Evaluation method of technology transaction
There are three payment methods for technology use fee, namely lump-sum payment, royalty payment and entry fee plus royalty payment.
Lump sum payment means that both parties to the contract settle all the contract price in one lump sum when concluding the contract, and stipulate a total amount in the contract, which will be paid by the importer in one lump sum or by installments.
Royalty refers to a certain percentage of fees paid by the importer to the licensor according to the effect of technical practice within a certain period stipulated in the contract. The characteristic of this payment method is that when signing the technology transfer contract, both parties only agree on the royalty period, royalty ratio, royalty basis and royalty method, but not the specific amount of technology fees. The actual income of Licensor is determined by the economic benefits generated by the implementation of technology by the importer. There are many ways to pay commission, such as commission according to output, commission according to price, commission according to sales revenue or profit. Commission according to output refers to the commission according to the quantity of products produced by the transferred technology. The characteristics of commission according to output are: the amount of commission does not change with the change of cost and price, is not affected by inflation, and has nothing to do with product sales and profits. In the practice of international technology trade, it is a common way to charge commission according to the sales price. Any commodity has many prices, such as cost price, market selling price, net selling price, FOB price, CIF price, wholesale price and so on. Commission according to sales revenue is actually a combination of production and sales price. Royalty refers to the extraction of technology transfer fee according to the actual profit generated by the importer after implementing the technology.
Registration fee plus royalties is a combination of one-time payment and royalties. When this payment method is adopted, the importer must pay a fee to the licensor after the contract comes into effect, which is called the entry fee, and then pay the rest by royalty. The entry fee is part of the technology transfer fee.
According to the above profit method, in a certain period of time, the benefits brought by technology are as follows:
Oil and gas accumulation theory and exploration and development technology (5)
Where: PT is the total price of one-time transfer or authorization; T is a one-time transfer or authorization tax; AI% is the proportion of payment in the first year; Ti is the tax for the first year; Si is the technical commission base (sales revenue, profit, etc.). ) in the first year; K i is the proportion of technical commission in the first year; Ci is the technical protection fee for the first year; PG is the entry fee for technology use; R is the benchmark discount rate.
3.3 Self-debugging evaluation method
Self-produced income:
Oil and gas accumulation theory and exploration and development technology (5)
Where: N0 is the construction/production period; N 1 is the sales growth period; N2 is the period of sales decline; C 1 is working capital; Ce invests in industrialized production; Cm investment market development; Cj is the operating cost; Pi is the price of products/services in the first year; Si is the sales volume of products/services in the first year; Ti is the first year tax.
Four trial cases
Assume that the production and construction period of a technology is 1 year, the production investment is 500,000 yuan, and the trial operation and promotion period is 1 year; The technology license adopts the way of profit commission, and the commission ratio is 5%. Then the cash flows of these two methods in 10 are shown in Table 2. In the case of ignoring the influence of taxes and fees, the net present value of technology license and self-production is calculated according to formulas (2) and (4) respectively:
Oil and gas accumulation theory and exploration and development technology (5)
It can be seen from the calculation that the self-production method can obtain higher income than the technology authorization. From the perspective of capital utilization efficiency, the technology authorization has no upfront investment, and it needs to bear the production cost and promotion cost if it is put into production by itself. That is to say, if the enterprise's capital conditions permit, the self-produced scheme is superior to the technology authorization, but when the capital conditions do not permit, or the technology does not belong to the core business of the enterprise, the capital use cost such as loan interest should be considered in the evaluation, or the joint venture and cooperation should be adopted for commercialization.
5 conclusion
The choice of business model is of great significance to the commercialization, popularization and application of technology. The value of technology should be evaluated regularly, so that commercial operation can be involved in the process of technology popularization as soon as possible and the technical benefits can be maximized. It is helpful to construct corresponding evaluation methods for different business models, compare and select technology commercialization schemes, and improve the level of technology portfolio selection and the return on technology investment.
At present, the evaluation method proposed in this paper only evaluates an indicator of economic return, without considering the impact of technology on intangible assets of enterprises, such as the impact of technology on enterprise strategy, the impact of technology on enterprise reputation and partners, including the quality of partners, social impact, HSE (health and safety environment) and social reflection and reputation.
Table 2 Cash flow of different commercialization models
refer to
[1] Song Qi. On the attribute of technical capital. Science and Technology and Dialectics [J] .2004,21(2): 51~ 53.
[2] Zhang Jianjun. Difficulties and countermeasures of commercialization and industrialization of petroleum scientific and technological achievements. Petroleum Science and Technology Forum [J].1996,35 (3): 60 ~ 61.
[3] Vijai Jolly. Zhang, et al. From creativity to market: commercialization of new technologies [M]. Beijing: Tsinghua University Publishing House, 200 1.
[4] Steve Jacobs. Crossing the technical gap: controlled pressure drilling. JPT[J].20 1 1，28(2):30~35 .
[5] Steve Jacobs. Crossing the technical gap: earthquake while drilling. JPT[J].20 1 1，28(3):30 ~35 .
[6] Lv Haiyan, et al. Science and Technology Management Practice: Research on Several Issues of Technology Commercialization in China [M]. Wuhan: China Geo University Press, 2005.