CHAPTER 6: DATA ANALYSIS AND PRSENTATION OF RESULTS
6.7 THE ROLE OF PPPs IN COMMERCIALIZATION OF TIs: PRESENTATION OF
6.7 THE ROLE OF PPPs IN COMMERCIALIZATION OF TIs: PRESENTATION OF
6.7.1 Risk Sharing
All five respondents identify “sharing innovation development and management-related risk” as the major
“benefit” they get or are likely to obtain through PPPs. All interviewees in the sample see PPPs as vehicles through which costs, responsibilities and innovation risks can be shared together with the benefits that come through the alliances. Thus responses such as the following were common:
We share the expenses related to the partnership, the risks we bear together. Of course depending on the nature of the agreement, in some cases we get sponsors who fund everything from the new product development right through to commercialization – something we cannot afford to get when we operate on our own. Such sponsors seem to have (more) faith in alliances than individual institute projects.
6.7.2 Product Knowledge Sharing and Information Dissemination
Almost all of the interviewees (5 out of 6) refer to the “joy of seeing an innovation sailing through the market” and the need to “get the technological innovation out of the research institute.” Other responses varied from “seeing our technological breakthrough being used as new products,” to “getting our new technologies to the market.” Hence the majority of the interviewees see the organization of PPPs as an imperative move for Research & Development – and Commercialization (R & D – C) of TIs. The interview participants state that these alliances in form of PPPs “increase the visibility of the new product.”
They perceive a PPP as “an essential path” for sharing and disseminating information on the new TIs – their application and how to access them:
We perform research all year round, we convert ideas into concepts and into final products…and…this isn’t enough…I think we can get much more mileage out there if we can get support from other parties. They can spread the word within their areas of influence, within their means – we do the same…our combined marketing efforts are better than our own individual efforts.
Alliances, especially those that include international partners, are said to be more lucrative and ideal in enhancing “international exposure” and “international recognition” of Zimbabwe’s innovations. For example, a participant [4] from a public coffee research institute from the Eastern Highlands explains:
My institute has partnered with some bodies from India, Germany, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Brazil. Through these relationships, we have engaged in some exchange programmes, we have been called to participate and showcase our output in international conferences and
exhibitions…and we now have affiliation to international professional bodies that govern our business conduct. These have helped strengthen our international ties while improving our market base coverage.
This expression clearly shows an excitement with international collaborations at the expense of the local PPPs, which most interviewees describe as “weak” and “not reaping much of the expected outcomes”.
6.7.3 PPPs Improve Economic Competitiveness
Another common role that emerged (4 respondents) is that interviewees strongly feel that PPPs help in improving the economic competitiveness of the nation as a whole. This, the interviewees said, can be enhanced through PPPs’ ability to modernize national infrastructure. For instance, one respondent stresses that:
Indeed, PPPs help in resolving national problems. Take for instance, the E10 fuel PPP which saw the erection of the gigantic ethanol plant in Chisumbanje, how many jobs has it created? How many living standards have the structure improved? How many access roads have roads have been constructed? What about houses…?
In support of this opinion, another respondent echoes:
Of course we have a lot to gain than to lose with these alliances. You see when we engage in these alliances, in most cases we erect structures for production, sales and marketing, administration etc. hence employment is created, living standards are improved; peoples’ tastes improve as they move along with technology. This means our new technologies’ market uptake improves as well.
The above views show a positive relationship between economic competitiveness and the uptake of the research institutes’ technologies. The relationship is however enhanced through infrastructural development.
6.7.4 PPPs enhance Demand-driven Research
It emerged that “properly formulated and effective” PPPs facilitate the introduction of demand-driven technologies, “with a ready market”. One respondent was quoted as saying:
With a properly organized PPP, institutes are assured of funding and market as the parties make a combined effort to ensure they introduce only what is required by the market and that which meets industry’s demands. This way we avoid ‘academic research’ with no ‘takers’.
Asked how PPPs could be “properly organized” and be “effectively run”, almost all interviewees highlight the need for adequate funding, ensuring national political stability, proper communications between parties to the alliance, creation of platforms where issues can be raised and discussed (stakeholder consultation forums) as well as the need for appointing of a “referee” to coordinate the PPP activities. The “referee”
appointment issue raises so much interest such that one participant is very defensive about it:
Most PPPs in Zimbabwe have failed because they do not have a ‘referee.’ They just do things anyhow…. There is need for a referee e.g. in form of a PPP steering committee with representatives from the Funders or Donors of the alliance, supervisory body, executing agent, implementing agent (the research institute, in this case).
Another interviewee [2], a business development manager adds:
… there is also need for periodic progress reports in which issues relating to progress achieved, challenges faced and the future of the alliance, should be deliberated against work plans agreed upon.
6.7.5 Avoidance of Technology Duplication
It also emerged from the interviews that PPPs, if “properly run” can go a long way in avoiding duplication of technology amongst both public and public research institutes thus ensuring efficient allocation of the nation’s “scarce resources”. Thus two of the interviewees from the private sector feel that combined efforts from the PPP players could result in a unique technological innovation, in a better form, compared to two
“otherwise similar technologies emanating from the research institutes as separate players”.
6.7.6 Enhancement of Capacity Building
Two of the interviewees, from each of the two sectors (public and private), support the view that PPPs facilitate capacity building projects for their respective institutes. This capacity building, according to the respondents, is prevalent in the areas of “product standardization, certification, verification and sustainability” thus “one player’s weaknesses are strengthened the other players’ areas of strengths as the PPP players complement each other in terms of skills – from production right through to post-sales skills…”
6.7.7 PPPs as Innovation Policy Tools
Grounded on the belief that private players are indeed “superior to the public sector in efficient resource allocation” (Oblak, Bistričić & Jugović, 2013), one influential participant [1] from the private sector notes:
…PPPs allow the quality and cost of new technologies to be benchmarked against the prevailing standards on the local, regional and on international markets. With combined resources, skills and effort such benchmarking becomes very possible and this, in turn, helps in ensuring effectiveness and efficiency in all processes.
The interviewee further emphasizes that:
It is of great significance to create and maintain sustainable relationships if successful marketing efforts for any new product are to be fruitful…PPPs serve well in fulfilling this requirement in commercialization policy making…
The table below summarizes the main PPP roles that emerged from the interviews, together with other roles that arose, which were thematically organized.
Table 6.21: Summary of the roles of PPPs in Commercialization
Main Roles arising Other Roles
Risk Sharing
Product Knowledge Sharing and Information Dissemination
PPPs Improve Economic Competitiveness
PPPs enhance Demand-driven Research
Avoidance of Technology Duplication
Enhancement of Capacity Building
PPPs as a policy tool
Faster and Improved Project Delivery
Use of Private Sector Expertise
PPPs Drive Innovation
Economy Sustainability
Enhanced new product exposure through local, regional and international affiliations
Enable formation of informal networks which facilitate formal relationships development, hence enhancing licensing arrangements with established firms
Asked about the perceived level of general public awareness surrounding the existence of some PPPs in Zimbabwe, the majority of the participants (3 out of 5) feel strongly that the general public is not very aware of the existence of PPPs in Zimbabwe, “save for a few”. The respondents refer to what they describe as “constituencies” rather than the public. For instance, they refer to the “coffee constituency, for Coffee research institutes – composed of coffee farmers, farmer field schools, coffee consumers etc”, so it appeared some of the research institutes have a certain targeted communities which they deal with. Thus one interviewee states:
…regarding the general public, some might be aware and some might not be aware of the existence of public-private-partnerships….so it’s a mixed pot where some institutes make efforts to create that “awareness” you are asking about, some do not make such efforts – some decide to, but some do not just have the resources to do so even though they have the desire.
This expression leaves a lot of questions. It represents a mixed group in terms of the levels of awareness of the PPP developments taking place within communities, something that probably defeats the overall desire of any scientist to see their output through to the community. However, the participant raises an important determinant of creating the much needed awareness – resources, either financial, material or human resources.