Identifying and Prioritizing Barriers to the Commercialization of Academic Research: A Contextual Analysis in Islamic Azad University

In Iran, the commercialization of university research is still in its infancy stage. The purpose of present study was to identify and prioritize the effective barriers to the commercialization of research in the Islamic Azad University. This study was a qualitative research using grounded theory approach, the statistical population includes academic experts and a purposeful sampling was applied based on theoretical saturation. To collect data, two methods of study and analysis of research background and semi-structured interviews were used. Research findings showed that during the last two decades, there was a high potential for intellectual production in this university. However, the findings indicated that there are five major obstacles to increasing the commercialization of academic research. Also, the division of barriers into two groups within and outside the organization highlights the wide range of these challenges and the unwillingness of university administrators to commercialize research in the short and medium perspectives. The research findings are in line with findings in other countries regarding major barriers to the commercialization of academic research