Sustainable development in South Africa through research in the National System of Innovation.

Abstract

This research examined the role of research commercialisation for Sustainable Development (SD) in South African National System of Innovation (NSI) within the context of public administration. The introduction has provided the research objectives, problem statement and the research questions. It should be noted that the theoretical perspective served as a ‘reference dictionary’ that informs the rest of the research, the literature has also examined the role of research commercialisation for SD in the African region from an international perspective. Further, the pragmatic research design adopted provides the basis for undertaking mixed-method research, namely: quantitative followed by qualitative, supplemented by secondary documents and the methodological data analysis triangulation technique has facilitated the achievement of a ‘whole greater than the sum of the parts’. In addition, the research methodology assessed the role of higher education institutions (HEIs) research commercialisation for SD. The findings identifying the HEIs as an important source of research for SD resulting in the findings showed that the HEIs face considerable constraints that hinder research commercialisation for SD, which include human resource capacity gaps, infrastructure and funding. The findings also identified HEIs-private sector collaboration as an important alternative avenue for research commercialisation for SD as a consequence the recommendations proposed that improving research commercialisation for SD should be high among the triple helix policy agenda. Finally, the recommendations also emphasised the importance of consolidating NSI gains, including efficiency in disseminating research results, efficient exploitation of new knowledge and technology transfer, leveraging the central role of the private sector in the NSI, effective application of intellectual property rights, broadening NSI actors’ participation, simplification of policies and procedures and efficiency of allocation of funding.