For the commercial sector the term defines a process aimed at expediting the development and commercialization of known entities.
Omidyar and his colleagues say that the biggest obstacle to commercialization of the sector is philanthropic capital.
The SBIR program funds early-stage R&D projects at small technology companies that support a US Department of Defense (DoD) need and have the potential for commercialization in private sector and/or military markets.
The SBIR/STTR programme's main push is to transform scientific discovery into social benefits and to emphasize private sector commercialization, so proposals must identify the beneficiaries of the technology and its potential for commercialisation.
The SBIR grant program stated goals: stimulation of technological development; to involve small businesses to meet federal research and development needs; to increase private sector commercialization of innovations derived from federal research and development; and to foster and encourage participation by minority and disadvantaged persons in technological development.
So I would look at it from the point of view of the farmer, researcher, down the line to the product, and then full commercialization with private sector – [a] bringing together of the ideas".
Demand for research by industry has been poorly understood, public-private links are weak and public sector commercialization policies, which have focused on the supply side, have therefore been ineffective.
Omidyar sees himself as an agent of global change — in this case, the commercialization of the microfinance sector.
"The question about all this is whether society is really getting back more in terms of the social mission it receives from a charity than the subsidies it is providing in the form of tax exemptions," said Burton A. Weisbrod, an economics professor at Northwestern University and editor of a book on the commercialization of the nonprofit sector, "To Profit or Not to Profit".
The move could pave the way for up to 25,000 graduates of private colleges to acquire equal professional rights with their counterparts from Greek universities — a prospect vehemently opposed by university students, who say they fear it will compromise their job prospects and rail against the "commercialization" of the education sector on union Web sites and at protest rallies.
