A discrimination of success variables that indicate increased likelihood to achieve Phase III Commercialization or Technology Infusion from NASA funded Phase II Small Business Innovation Research

The Small Business Innovation Research program is a Federally funded effort to utilize small business commercialize innovations. The program is organized into three segments: a 6-month Feasibility Study (Phase 1), 2-year Research and Development (Phase II), and Phase III Commercialization/Technology Infusion (not funded under the program). All Federally sponsored Small Business Innovation Research share the same structure but each Agency's implementation differs due to unique mission requirements. Previous research on Phase III has primarily occurred at the program level and has not considered the unique aspects of the implementing Agencies. Studies on NASA's program focused on program performance and did not identify factors that specifically contribute to achieving Phase III.;This study identifies success variables that increase the likelihood to achieve Phase III from NASA funded Phase II Small Business Innovation Research. These variables provide insight for small businesses so they can increase their ability to commercialize or infuse technologies. This study developed a comprehensive process to identify candidate critical success factors from two primary sources: the literature and a structured interview process. These candidate critical success factor lists were merged with help of Small Business Innovation Research managers and subject matter experts. The list was used to develop a questionnaire which was then deployed across managers with experience executing Phase II projects. Considering the number of responses, techniques were used to reduce variables so statistical methods could be employed. The Primary Analysis identified two success variables for projects that achieved Phase III: they delivered a technology that solved the customer's problem and they were able to obtain post-Phase II funding from an external source. Secondary Analysis studied the influence of the type of technology and the type of Phase III (commercialization or technology infusion) on indicator variables. Technology Area results showed it was possible to discriminate variables based on the technology. Commercialization is influenced by internal company variables and Technology Infusion is influenced by external company variables. Tertiary Analysis indicated that Technology Area does not influence whether an innovation reaches Phase III or whether the innovation is commercialized or infused back into the government.