Market Insights

Optimizing the Technology Consulting Role of Lecturers: Which Model Creates Real Value for Businesses?

In the context of growing demand for innovation and ESG, bringing technology solutions into real-world use is more important than ever. However, many solutions are still difficult to verify outside theoretical settings due to a lack of testing environments and connected ecosystems. This limits implementation and reduces the ability to create real value.

1. Lack of Technology and Testing Environments: Barriers to Technology Consulting Role of Lecturers

Currently, in addition to teaching and research roles, lecturers are increasingly participating in consulting and technology transfer activities for businesses through forms such as consulting, contract research, and industry collaboration.

To effectively perform this role, two critical factors are access to diverse technology sources and real-world testing environments. The World Economic Forum emphasizes that innovation ecosystems need technological diversity and capacity to solve complex problems. Simultaneously, according to the European Commission, real-life testing is an essential condition for validating effectiveness before deployment.

However, in reality, these two factors often do not exist simultaneously. The lack of connection between universities and businesses, along with the absence of testing environments, are the main barriers preventing much research from being converted into applications. Therefore, the challenge lies not in the lack of research, but in the lack of mechanisms to help connect technology, testing, and real-world deployment.

technology consulting role of lecturers, mekonglink, mexpert, living lab — Lack of testing environments is the main barrier to practical technology deployment

2. Limitations in Consulting Without Real-Life Testing

2.1 Impact on the activities and development of lecturers/researchers

Collaboration and funding opportunities from businesses or organizations depend heavily on the practicality and feasibility of proposed solutions. Without data or validation evidence, lecturers will face difficulties in attracting funding resources as well as building partnerships with industry. This reality is clearly recorded in emerging markets, where businesses prioritize solutions capable of bringing specific value and measurable return on investment.

Maintaining research without verification or transfer orientation can increase the risk of wasting time, as well as the internal resources of the consultant.

2.2 Financial and operational impact on consulting-recipient businesses

Businesses implementing consulting solutions that have not been field-tested face the risk of misdirected investment. This can cause resources to be scattered into technologies or processes that lack sufficient grounds to confirm effectiveness, leading to waste of finance, human resources, and development time.

In addition, delays in accessing and applying innovative solutions will affect a business’s competitive position. Especially in fields related to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), failing to innovate in time for new compliance requirements will create reputational risks and limit the ability to leverage competitive advantages in a rapidly changing market.

2.3 Impact on prestige and reputation

When consulting advice or research results cannot be applied in practice or do not yield desired results, the personal prestige of the lecturer is simultaneously affected, leading to a decline in the reputation of the representing academic organization.

Finally, without verification and application transfer channels, the academic community’s contribution to urgent economic, social, and environmental issues in countries is limited. This creates a gap in connecting research capacity with the existing needs of the regional economy and society, especially in sustainable development and ESG topics.

3. Common Approaches and Limitations

3.1 Focusing only on basic research and theory

Focusing on basic research and theory helps build the knowledge foundation for the field. However, in practice, this approach often lacks connection with the needs of businesses and the market. According to Dai Bieu Nhan Dan (2026), many studies in Vietnam still primarily serve academic publications, while application and commercialization capabilities are limited.

The consequence is that while these works have scientific value, they are difficult to transform into specific solutions, hard to verify under real operating conditions, and have little potential for deployment at a corporate scale.

3.2 Consulting based on personal experience or limited data

Personalized consulting based on experience or data from small, isolated projects sometimes results in solutions that are not based on solid scientific evidence and lack practical validation on a wide scale.

According to VCCI (2024), many businesses report that current consulting solutions lack practical data and are difficult to apply broadly in different contexts. This makes recommendations hard to expand, lacking in consistency, and difficult to prove effective at a large scale.

3.3 One-off collaboration with a specific business or startup

Collaborating with a single business or startup can create initial results but is often limited in terms of technology scope, resources, and testing environments.

According to a publication from the State Management Journal, collaboration activities between institutes-universities and businesses in Vietnam are still isolated, short-term, and lack ecosystem links. At the same time, the innovation ecosystem is still fragmented, lacking multi-party coordination, making solutions difficult to verify and expand. As a result, solutions developed in this direction are often hard to replicate for other businesses or apply in different contexts.

4. Solutions for Lecturers in Consulting Roles: Models Supporting Technology Testing and Deployment

4.1 Participating in open innovation ecosystems or Living Labs

To effectively perform the role of consulting and transfer, lecturers simultaneously need two factors:

Diverse technology sources to propose suitable solutions
Testing environments (pilots) to verify in a real context

However, in reality, these two factors rarely exist at the same time, making it difficult for many solutions to be verified before deployment.

Models like Living Labs help directly address this gap. In particular, Mekonglink’s ESG Living Labs can connect many technology sources from businesses, startups, and experts, while facilitating solution testing directly in real-world environments with the participation of end-users.

Thanks to this, lecturers not only have many technology choices to propose but can also quickly verify effectiveness before deployment, reducing risks and increasing practical applicability.

>>> See more about Mekonglink’s ESG Living Lab model here!

4.2 Collaborating with technology transfer centers or innovation business incubators

Technology transfer centers and incubators act as bridges between research and the market. Through these organizations, lecturers can:

Access existing or developing technologies
Collaborate with startups and SMEs
Leverage commercialization and operational capabilities

As a result, the process of bringing solutions from the research lab to the market is shortened, while increasing verification capabilities in real-world contexts.

4.3 Building applied research projects with community participation

Designing projects with end-user participation from the beginning helps ensure:

Solutions are suited to real needs
Continuous feedback mechanisms are in place
Increased scalability

This approach shifts the focus from “research for publication” to “solving practical problems,” thereby enhancing verification effectiveness and social impact.

5. Conclusion: Innovation is Only Valuable When Proven in Practice

The lack of diverse technology sources and real-world testing environments is a major barrier that makes it difficult for lecturers to verify solutions and create valuable application case studies. This not only reduces the impact of research but also increases risk for businesses and causes them to miss innovation opportunities.

With a suitable collaboration model, lecturers can access technology, test in real conditions, and transform research into deployable solutions.

👉 Contact Mekonglink here to connect with suitable technology sources and implement real-world testing, elevating your own advisory role with businesses today!