Roles in Research Teams: The Perspective of University Commercialisation

Although the investigation of team roles has been a focus of scientific research over an extended period, one of the less recognised issues in this area is the functioning of research teams, especially in commercialising their scientific results. Drawing from a comprehensive examination of the literature and the concept of ‘The A-to-F Model’ by de Bes and Kotler, this paper aims to broaden the knowledge about the research team’s roles and their influence on commercialising their results. To do this, in the empirical part, we use the data from a study of 496 scientists from one of the leading research universities in Poland. The results of the estimated probit regression models showed the inconsistency with ‘The A-to-F Model’. Only two of the six roles, i.e., creator and executor, are essential. The activator, browser, developer, and facilitator were statistically insignificant.