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R and D Management

Impact factor: 1.58 5-Year impact factor: 2.233 Print ISSN: 0033-6807 Online ISSN: 1467-9310 Publisher: Wiley Blackwell (Blackwell Publishing)

Subjects: Business, Management

Most recent papers:

  • Readying a region: temporally exploring the development of an Australian regional quadruple helix.
    Anton Kriz, Sarah Bankins, Courtney Molloy.
    R and D Management. October 17, 2017
    Understanding how innovation drives regional development has important economic and social outcomes. Models such as Smart Specialisation and the quadruple helix are increasingly adopted given their sensitivity to place‐based contexts. But although innovation processes are dynamic and facilitated by individuals’ interactions, our understanding of how these connections are developed and sustained during helix collaboration development remains under‐investigated. This research adopts an action research approach, focused on a regional Australian case study, to test a multi‐disciplinary conceptual framework exploring key human‐centred, micro‐processes driving quadruple helix development: trust building; power relationships; regional readiness; and time and sphere centrality. The findings demonstrate the interactive nature of these processes, with trust‐building facilitating the deployment of power bases by critical innovation agents which then foments regional readiness for change, subsequently driving the helix spheres towards overlap. These processes were also driven by changing sphere centrality and unique regional temporal structures. Practically, these outcomes offer insights into the human capital dynamics of regional helix collaborations, particularly for identifying the key individuals required to drive their development.
    October 17, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12294   open full text
  • The pursuit of original equipment manufacturer strategy: insights from an Asian country.
    Jarunee Wonglimpiyarat.
    R and D Management. October 10, 2017
    The automotive sector is the major industry of Thailand's economy. This paper discusses the national strategy of Thailand toward the Detroit of Asia. In particular, the study analyses the pursuit of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) strategy in the Thai automotive industry, based on Porter's Diamond Model. A qualitative approach was adopted, using semi‐structured interviews to understand the reasons behind Thailand's adoption of OEM strategy and its decisions in not following other strategic approaches. The findings provide important lessons to other developing economies in terms of adopting the right strategies to improve the national performance and competitiveness. The case of Thailand is clearly evident that the Thai government chooses not to develop its own brand (OBM strategy) but pursue the OEM path to strengthen its automotive industry.
    October 10, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12299   open full text
  • The complementary effect of intellectual property protection mechanisms on product innovation performance.
    Jung Min Lee, Si Hyoung Joo, Yeonbae Kim.
    R and D Management. September 29, 2017
    This study assessed the effect of simultaneous implementations of different intellectual property (IP) protection mechanisms on a firm's product innovation performance (PIP). The study categorized seven widely‐used IP protection mechanisms (IPPMs) into two groups: formal and informal. Complementarity was then tested within and between the formal and informal groups of IPPMs. The result showed that there existed complementarity when multiple IPPMs were implemented from the same groups. Throughout an additional analysis on the moderating effect of the industrial complexity in technology, it was found that the ‘between groups' combination effect was also existed but varied from even negative to positive concluding that industrial complexity of technology moderates the effects of combinations of IPPMs on a firm's PIP. These results imply that the use of multiple IPPMs is effective but the effect varies by the technological complexity of industry.
    September 29, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12296   open full text
  • Toward an optimal degree of openness in IT innovation projects.
    Olga Bürger, Florian Moser.
    R and D Management. September 26, 2017
    In spite of substantial interest in open innovation (OI), both research and practice lack methods that support companies in managing their IT innovation projects (ITIPs) relative to OI. We contribute to the closure of this gap by providing an approach for an ex ante financial evaluation of OI application, which involves developing a theoretical model that determines the optimal degree of openness in ITIPs. Based on our model, we examine relevant causal relationships by analyzing the influence of a company's ability to manage OI and the probability of success in OI application on the theoretical optimum. We find that the optimal openness level is linked with the company's ability to manage OI, which can incorporate organizational, cultural, and technological maturity. To increase the value contribution of OI, companies should focus on a steady improvement in managing OI. The results provide both an indicator for practical decision‐making and a starting point for future research.
    September 26, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12297   open full text
  • Recombination for innovation: performance outcomes from international partnerships in China.
    Simon Collinson, Yipeng Liu.
    R and D Management. September 25, 2017
    This paper examines the relationship between different types of international partnerships and innovation performance. By drawing on a conceptual framework which outlines how new bundles of transferrable and nontransferrable ownership advantages are created from such partnerships (Collinson and Narula, ), we analyze empirical evidence from a large‐scale survey of 320 individual company responses from the China‐based operations of foreign multinational firms alongside in‐depth case studies. Our study reveals that different types of collaborative partnerships (cooperative vs. competitive) are associated with different innovation performance outcomes (product vs. process innovation). In addition, we find that a sustainable, reciprocal relationship between collaborative partners can generate superior innovation performance. Contextual factors including the role of government and industry characteristics have an important bearing on innovation performance in collaborative partnerships in China. We conclude with implications for researchers, managers, and policymakers.
    September 25, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12293   open full text
  • Who's pulling the strings? The influence of network structure on standard dominance.
    Geerten van de Kaa.
    R and D Management. September 21, 2017
    Innovative systems and infrastructures require generally accepted common compatibility standards to enable components of such systems to interoperate. In some cases, various standards are developed by competing standards organizations, often resulting in standards battles. This paper focuses on factors that affect the outcome of these standards battles, and, specifically, on the effect of the structure of the industry‐wide standards networks on standard dominance. The empirical context is the consumer electronics, telecommunications, and ICT arenas. We conduct a study of 103 standards organizations from 2000 to 2011. We find support for the hypothesis that standards that are supported by standards organizations that have a central position in the industry‐wide standards network have a high chance of achieving dominance.
    September 21, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12295   open full text
  • The impact of leadership influence tactics and employee openness toward others on innovation performance.
    Kaja Rangus, Matej Černe.
    R and D Management. September 21, 2017
    Despite the vital importance of leadership, employees, and their social interactions in the open‐innovation process, there is scarce evidence on the influence and connectedness of different sub‐firm levels related to open innovation. The aim of this study is to explore the influence of leadership influence tactics and employee openness toward others on innovation performance at the individual and team levels. We applied a multilevel analysis on a sample of 85 employees and their 15 direct supervisors/team leaders. We find that leaders’ building open‐innovation coalitions exhibits a positive cross‐level relationship with employee openness toward others and individual‐level innovative behavior, and also moderates the link between the latter two constructs. Additionally, the leaders’ building open‐innovation coalitions variable is positively related to the team‐level scope of innovations and the team‐level innovation implementation phase.
    September 21, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12298   open full text
  • Leveraging ideas from user innovation communities: using text‐mining and case‐based reasoning.
    Jieun Kim, Yongtae Park.
    R and D Management. September 20, 2017
    User innovation communities, where end users voluntarily share their ideas about new products or services, have become an important source of innovation. While efforts have been made to extract and develop ideas from these sources, existing studies have largely focused on company‐led efforts to facilitate user participation, rather than on voluntary user discussions within communities themselves. As a remedy, this research proposes to directly target those voluntary ideas from user innovation communities for product/service innovation. Because quantities of textual information within these communities are rather massive, we propose a modified and integrated approach of text‐mining (TM) and case‐based reasoning (CBR). Specifically, by constructing two casebases on ideas and existing products using TM and checking for overlap between the two using CBR, the approach enables the identification of opportunities for innovation and reference products for adaptation. We demonstrate the approach through a case of mobile apps in Apple App Store, and our findings suggest that the approach can help firms and users/developers broaden the source of ideas and leverage them into new product concepts.
    September 20, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12292   open full text
  • When do structural holes in employees' networks improve their radical creativity? A moderated mediation model.
    Chaoying Tang, Guiyang Zhang, Stefanie E. Naumann.
    R and D Management. August 31, 2017
    Previous research has found a relationship between structural holes of knowledge networks, tie strength of knowledge networks, and creativity. Our study extends these findings by proposing that characteristics of R&D employees' team knowledge networks influence their acquired diversified knowledge from the team, which is critical to creativity. Our results based on 558 members of 92 R&D teams demonstrated that, in order to benefit from their broker position in acquiring diversified knowledge, R&D employees should maintain their tie strength toward the team members with whom they are connected.
    August 31, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12286   open full text
  • A research and development decision model for pharmaceutical industry: case of China.
    Leong Chan, Tugrul Daim.
    R and D Management. August 29, 2017
    This paper evaluates prospective technology areas, development strategies, and various innovation resources in China's pharmaceutical sector through the use of a hierarchical decision model. The results indicate that although domestic SMEs are the major preferred innovation alternative, it is followed closely by foreign MNCs. The sensitivity analysis indicates that the effectiveness of policy decisions are influenced by certain high technology areas. Recombinant therapeutic proteins, recombinant vaccines, and monoclonal antibody technologies are identified as the major areas that will influence the priority of innovation resources. The research crafts a research framework to formulate innovation strategies in dealing with the uncertainties of technology development and policy decisions in the biopharmaceutical industry.
    August 29, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12285   open full text
  • Industry cognitive distance in alliances and firm innovation performance.
    Despoina Filiou, Silvia Massini.
    R and D Management. August 17, 2017
    This paper focuses on the role of industry cognitive distance in innovation alliances on firm innovation performance. Drawing from the literature on technological cognitive distance in alliances, we elaborate on the role of industry cognitive distance between partners and its impact on managerial attention to investigate the role of numbers of alliances of low (intra‐industry) and high (inter‐industry) industry cognitive distance on firm innovation performance. Intra‐industry alliances offer lower opportunities for innovation compared to inter‐industry alliances and are less demanding on firm management due to higher cognitive similarity between partners from the same industry. We propose that trade‐offs between innovation opportunities and management efforts result in an inverted U and a U‐shaped relationship between the number of intra‐ and inter‐industry alliances and innovation performance, respectively. We find support for both hypotheses in the context of the UK bio‐pharmaceutical sector.
    August 17, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12283   open full text
  • University – industry collaboration in R&D: the role of labor market rigidity.
    Christopher Williams, Gayle Allard.
    R and D Management. August 02, 2017
    We investigate how R&D university – industry collaboration (R&D UIC) is influenced by labor market rigidity. While it is well‐established that an educated and skilled workforce will facilitate R&D UIC, another aspect of these alliances has been under‐researched: the role of labor market rigidity, in particular the difficulties employers face in hiring and firing workers. We hypothesize that the size of the R&D labor pool in a country will encourage R&D UIC, and that the ease with which employers are legally allowed to hire and fire will directly and indirectly influence R&D UIC. Integrating data from various sources, we test our model on a sample of 73 countries for which information on the size of the R&D labor pool and labor market regulations are available. We also conduct a robustness test using a different proxy for R&D labor pool on a larger sample of 109 countries. Results confirm the strong link between a country's R&D labor pool and R&D UIC, as well as direct negative impacts of hiring and firing rigidity and an indirect negative impact of hiring rigidity. The findings have implications for managers, policy makers, and researchers of R&D collaboration between universities and industry.
    August 02, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12282   open full text
  • Complementarity in product, process, and organizational innovation decisions: evidence from European firms.
    Oliviero A. Carboni, Paolo Russu.
    R and D Management. August 02, 2017
    This work uses a sample of firm‐level data from seven EU countries to explore the possible roles of simultaneity and heterogeneity in determining firms' decisions to engage in three types of innovation. Process, product, and organizational innovations are considered jointly, by applying a multivariate probit specification. The results support the hypothesis that the three innovation decisions are interdependent. This has straightforward implications for the practice of R&D managers. In order to gain advantages from an innovation, innovation managers need to jointly exploit these different types of innovation activities and their potential synergies. Given that the innovative firms in the sample, desire additional credit which actually they do not obtain, R&D managers should also be concerned with the financing sources firms have access to. Finally, from the analysis it also emerges that public support boost all the three forms of innovation.
    August 02, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12284   open full text
  • How to analyze technology lifecycle from the perspective of patent characteristics? the cases of DVDs and hard drives.
    Hsin‐Ning Su.
    R and D Management. July 25, 2017
    This study aims to analyze the technology lifecycle from the perspective of the dynamics of patent characteristics; the dynamics of patent characteristics are proposed as an approach for characterizing technology lifecycle in this study. DVD and hard drive technologies, which have already experienced their complete technology lifecycles, were selected for analyzing their patent characteristics as a function of the different stages of their technology lifecycles to thus obtain the objective of this research. The results obtained in this study provide a channel to assess the nature of firms’ innovation strategies along technology lifecycles. It can be observed that (1) patents attempt to cite more prior patent or non‐patent references at the latter stages to find more technological or scientific sources that can contribute to technological innovation, (2) most litigated patents are granted in the Growth stage, so it is expected that patents in the Growth stage should be more important and, thus, more relevant to dominant design than the patents granted in other stages.
    July 25, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12279   open full text
  • How functional involvement affects the transformation of external knowledge into innovation outcomes.
    Adamantia Pateli, Spyros Lioukas.
    R and D Management. July 25, 2017
    This paper aims at investigating organizational mechanisms through which firms involved in open innovation initiatives can acquire external knowledge, integrate it with the existing one residing in the diverse functional areas, and transform it into innovation outcomes. Following the knowledge transformation perspective, we use the notions of early‐stage and late‐stage functional involvement, and explain their mediating effects on a firm's innovation performance. Based on a sample of 131 international firms involved in open innovation projects, we find that high involvement of functions related to the early stage of the innovation process – notably new concept generation, research and development, and design and testing – fully mediates the effect of external knowledge transfer on innovation performance. Similarly, high involvement of functions related to the late stage of the innovation process – notably manufacturing, marketing, distribution, and logistics – has significant indirect effect on innovation performance but lower than that of early‐stage functional involvement. Furthermore, the empirical research reveals that early‐stage functional involvement mediates the positive effect of external knowledge transfer on late‐stage functional involvement. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.
    July 25, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12280   open full text
  • Determinants, causal connections and outcomes of corporate technology licensing: a systematic review and research agenda.
    Noni Symeonidou, Johan Bruneel.
    R and D Management. July 10, 2017
    Exchanges in markets for technology (MfT) have grown rapidly in recent years. MfT involve transactions for the use, diffusion and creation of technology. In this article, we conduct a systematic review of the emerging market for technology literature and examine one of its most important aspects, corporate technology licensing. Using thematic analysis, we systematically review 78 papers published in 29 journals over 30 years covering the academic disciplines of technology/knowledge management, strategic management, entrepreneurship, innovation management and industrial economics. Based on this analysis, we present an organizing framework for the most prominent determinants, causal connections and outcomes of technology licensing research to date and identify a research agenda highlighting important avenues for future research in this domain.
    July 10, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12278   open full text
  • R&D capabilities, intellectual property strength and choice of equity ownership in cross‐border acquisitions: evidence from BRICS acquirers in Europe.
    Mohammad Faisal Ahammad, Ziko Konwar, Nikolaos Papageorgiadis, Chengang Wang, Jacob Inbar.
    R and D Management. June 23, 2017
    The aim of the study is to investigate two relatively underexplored factors, namely, the R&D (research and development) capabilities of target firms and the strength of intellectual property (IP) institutions in target economies, that influences the choice of equity ownership in cross border acquisitions (CBAs) undertaken by multinational enterprises (MNEs) from BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) economies. They developed the key hypothesis on foreign market entry through CBAs by incorporating insights from transaction costs economics, the resource‐based view and institutional theory to investigate the determinants of full versus partial equity ownership. Using logistic regression estimation methods to a sample of 111 CBA deals of BRICS MNEs in 22 European countries, it was found that BRICS MNEs were likely to pursue full rather than partial acquisition mode when target firms have high R&D capabilities. However, the greater the degree of strength of IP institutions in target economies and higher the target firms’ R&D capabilities, the more likely it is for BRICS MNEs to undertake partial, rather than, full acquisition mode. They provided interesting theoretical insights and managerial implications that might underlie some of the key findings on CBAs by emerging market MNEs.
    June 23, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12274   open full text
  • The effects of the chief technology officer and firm and industry R&D intensity on organizational performance.
    John W. Medcof, Tien Lee.
    R and D Management. June 16, 2017
    Between 1993 and 2013 the number and power of CTOs increased; as indicated in the percentage of firms with CTOs, their increasing presence on boards, their compensation relative to their CEOs, and compensation relative to other highly compensated executives. Firms which pursue an aggressive technology strategy (powerful CTO, high R&D spending) in industries in which technology is a critical contingency have well above normal market adjusted returns while those which pursue that strategy in industries in which technology is not critical have well below normal returns. These results empirically confirm longstanding, untested assumptions in the field of technology management. Moreover, the effect of R&D expenditures on firm performance is contingent on the degree to which technology is a critical contingency in the industry and on the power of the firm's CTO. These findings may explain the mixed results of past studies of the effects of R&D expenditure on firm performance. A model which integrates its own insights with those of earlier work on CTOs, R&D expenditures, firm strategy, and firm power dynamics is presented and supported.
    June 16, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12275   open full text
  • Service innovation in times of economic crisis: the strategic adaptation activities of the top E.U. service firms.
    Carlos Martin‐Rios, Susana Pasamar.
    R and D Management. June 05, 2017
    This article examines the long‐term strategic adaptation activities top service firms use to respond to economic crisis. Based on a longitudinal dataset of 97 leading European service firms, it empirically conceptualizes three clusters or strategic types of organizational response to overcome long‐term financial strain experienced during 2008–2011, it tests the survivability of their strategic orientation and it assesses their relationship with organizational performance during the crisis (2008–2011) and in the post‐crisis period (2014–2016). Leading E.U. service firms that attempt to maximize adaptation by ‘Commitment‐to‐expansion’ (i.e., increase in R&D investment, strategic M&A and recruitment) ensure the long‐term survivability of their strategic orientation and generate growth in their operating profits, sales and market capitalization in contrast to service firms that implement cost‐oriented actions (layoffs and cutting back on R&D investment). These results extend the limited knowledge available on strategic adaptation in top E.U. service firms and provide insight into the role that different responses play in fostering recovery from ongoing economic and financial crisis, which have thus far remained empirically under‐researched.
    June 05, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12276   open full text
  • Product–service innovation and performance: the role of collaborative partnerships and R&D intensity.
    Oscar F. Bustinza, Emanuel Gomes, Ferran Vendrell‐Herrero, Tim Baines.
    R and D Management. April 24, 2017
    Treating the intersection of the strategic partnerships, R&D intensity and servitisation literatures, this study explores empirically whether external collaborative service development and provision and industrial R&D intensity help to unpack the complex relation between product–service innovation (servitisation) and performance. We argue that manufacturing firms implementing services benefit from strategic partnerships with Knowledge‐Intensive Business Service (KIBS) firms. KIBS partnering provides opportunities for downsizing, externalising risks and sharing knowledge. Additionally, manufacturers in R&D‐intensive industries are more likely to benefit from implementing service provision than firms in other sectors because of industry dynamics and reduced customer uncertainty. The study surveys executives in 370 large manufacturers worldwide. Results reinforce the importance of concentric strategic partnerships to successful product–service innovation in high R&D industries.
    April 24, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12269   open full text
  • Intellectual capital drivers of product and managerial innovation in high‐tech and low‐tech firms.
    Marta Buenechea‐Elberdin, Aino Kianto, Josune Sáenz.
    R and D Management. April 21, 2017
    There is widespread understanding that intellectual capital (IC), consisting of the valuable knowledge resources of an organization, is a key enabler of innovation activities; however, little is known about the more specific contingencies impacting the relationship between IC and innovation. Thus, this article examines firm technology level and innovation type as contingency variables. It was argued that because high‐tech and low‐tech firms differ in terms of several knowledge characteristics (complexity, tacitness and pace of renovation), it is likely that their innovation performance is supported by different combinations of IC components. Furthermore, differences between product/service and managerial innovation could also lead to changes in the degree of relevance of various IC components. To test these contingency hypotheses, a survey dataset collected from 180 Spanish companies is analysed using structural equation modelling. The results demonstrate that both firm's technology level and type of innovation affect how IC influences innovation performance. The findings contribute to a knowledge‐based perspective on innovation and pave the way for a more context‐sensitive and contingency‐mindful approach to understanding innovation and knowledge‐based value creation.
    April 21, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12271   open full text
  • Understanding the lifecycle of service firm business models: a qualitative‐empirical analysis.
    Sven M. Laudien, Birgit Daxböck.
    R and D Management. April 21, 2017
    A recent customer‐driven change of the understanding of service forces especially service firms to revise their strategies and following their business models as new market conditions require firm action. Our paper presents an analysis of how service firms innovate their business models in detail to cope with changing ecosystem conditions. We focus on theory building and approach this topic against the background of a qualitative, narrative research design. Our study contributes to business model innovation literature as it provides insights into the dynamics of business model innovation and presents an empirically grounded cycle model that details how service firms choose, invent, utilize, develop, and finally terminate a specific business model. In addition, we highlight cognitive and structural determinants affecting the positioning of a specific service firm business model in the identified lifecycle.
    April 21, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12273   open full text
  • A longitudinal study of the individual characteristics of effective R&D project team leaders.
    Robert T. Keller.
    R and D Management. April 21, 2017
    One hundred and eighteen project team leaders from five industrial research and development (R&D) organizations were studied to determine the individual characteristics that longitudinally predict leader effectiveness. Hypotheses generated from an interactionist framework and the theory of purposeful work behavior (Barrick et al., ) found an innovative orientation and job involvement to each predict 1‐year later and 5‐years later job performance ratings by immediate supervisors. Low need for clarity predicted 1‐year later performance ratings. Self‐esteem and job involvement each predicted 5‐years later profitability of the project, and job involvement predicted project speed to market. As hypothesized, type of R&D work was found to be a moderator whereby an innovative orientation predicted 1‐year and 5‐years later job performance primarily for research projects, and a low need for clarity predicted 1‐year later performance mainly for research projects. Implications for models of interactionism and leader effectiveness in R&D are discussed.
    April 21, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12272   open full text
  • Organizing for continuous technology acquisition: the role of R&D geographic dispersion.
    Lorenzo Ardito, Angelo Natalicchio, Antonio Messeni Petruzzelli, Achille Claudio Garavelli.
    R and D Management. April 18, 2017
    External technology acquisition has been proved to be an important strategy to enhance firms’ innovation performance. However, previous studies claim that companies acquiring technologies tend to not carry on with this strategy over time, thus limiting their attitude toward continuous technology acquisition. Moreover, the extant literature also highlights that this attitude is strongly influenced by their organizational structure. Therefore, in the present paper, we investigate the relationship between how firms organize R&D activities and continuous technology acquisition. Specifically, given the increasing globalization of technological development, we focus on the role of R&D geographic dispersion, and how its influence is moderated by firms’ technological diversification. We tested our hypotheses on longitudinal data of 303 biotechnology firms that acquired, at least, one USPTO patented technology over the period 1982–2012. Results reveal that R&D geographic dispersion is curvilinearly (inverted U‐shaped) related to continuous technology acquisition, with negative returns occurring earlier in technology‐diversified companies.
    April 18, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12270   open full text
  • Innovation incommensurability and the science park.
    Henry Etzkowitz, Chunyan Zhou.
    R and D Management. April 17, 2017
    The gap between science park aspiration and accomplishment is conceptualized as ‘innovation incommensurability,’ the persisting dilemma of a physical structure oriented innovation mechanism. A typology of science park impetuses and growth–analyzing critical elements, goals/ends and paths/means–suggests an appropriate balance between ‘exogenous’ and ‘endogenous’ innovation strategies in various regional circumstances. Alternative strategies of science park development are a ‘strategic research site’ to evaluate the roles of a university–industry–government triple helix in developing the science park model. Innovation incommensurability can be overcome by a longer‐term endogenous strategy combined with significant public investment. Ambitious science park projects, which were either early failures or later lost support, may succeed once a triple helix base is built to achieve an innovation eco‐system.
    April 17, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12266   open full text
  • The effect of social capital on local suppliers’ exploitative and exploratory learning in global buyer–supplier relationships: the moderating role of contract specificity.
    Lei Wang, Mile Terziovski, Fuming Jiang, Jun Li.
    R and D Management. April 10, 2017
    Drawing on the theories of social capital (SC) and organizational learning, a contingency theoretical framework that examines the impact of structural, relational, and cognitive SC on local suppliers’ exploitative and exploratory learning in the context of global buyer–supplier (GBS) relationships in China was developed. The extent to which the impact is moderated by the contract specificity between the buyer and supplier is also examined. The empirical results show significant positive impacts of structural and relational SC on local suppliers’ exploitative learning but significant negative impacts on local suppliers’ exploratory learning. More specifically, contract specificity strengthens the positive effects of all three dimensions of SC on exploitative and the negative effects of structural SC and relational SC on exploratory learning. They put forward several potential implications for practicing managers and policymakers.
    April 10, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12267   open full text
  • Vertical ally‐or‐acquire choice and technological performance: a resource dependence perspective.
    Liang‐Hung Lin.
    R and D Management. April 04, 2017
    In order to advance our understanding of technological firms’ vertical ally‐or‐acquire choices, this study applies resource dependence theory to explore how mutual dependence and dependence asymmetry between partners’ technologies affect governance choice. The collective effect of mutual dependence, dependence asymmetry and governance choice on technological performance of the transaction is also examined. Heckman's two‐stage analyses of 135 technology alliances and 91 technology acquisitions suggest that mutually dependent firms tend to adopt acquisitions, whereas asymmetrically dependent firms tend to adopt alliances. The fits between dependence asymmetry and alliances, and between mutual dependence and acquisitions consequently enhance technological performance.
    April 04, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12268   open full text
  • University business models in disequilibrium – engaging industry and end users within university technology transfer processes.
    Maura McAdam, Kristel Miller, Rodney McAdam.
    R and D Management. April 03, 2017
    This article explores how greater engagement with industry and end users has influenced the University Technology Transfer Business Model. In order to achieve this, they adopted a qualitative methodology which draws upon case study evidence of two case universities located in a particular region. The findings, represented in a conceptual framework depict a hybrid University Technology Transfer Business Model which is in a state of permanent disequilibrium as a result of path dependency and organisational culture. This permanent disequilibrium was found to cause challenges in relation to scarce resource allocation and also impacted upon the willingness and ability of academics to engage with industry and end users throughout the technology transfer process. This article contributes to an emerging stream of research on hybrid business models by identifying the challenges of permanent disequilibrium where multiple and conflicting stakeholder goals compete for legitimacy and scarce resources. From a policy and practitioner viewpoint, this research draws attention to the complexities of university, government, industry and end user (Quadruple Helix stakeholders) engagement and the implications of such on university strategy where conflicting dominant logics can cause challenges with alignment of organisational processes and mechanisms.
    April 03, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12265   open full text
  • The effect of board of directors on R&D intensity: board tenure and multiple directorships.
    Francisco Bravo, Nuria Reguera‐Alvarado.
    R and D Management. March 29, 2017
    Taking a combination between agency theory and resource dependence theory, we point out that directors' capital may have an effect on R&D strategies. A sample of both high‐tech and low‐tech industries for the period 2007–2011 is used. The results indicate that, regardless of the type of industry and the specific expertise on R&D intensive companies, board members with multiple directorships influence R&D corporate strategies. The resources acquired by directors through their experience and connections positively influence R&D intensity, but only if directors can carry out their monitoring activity adequately. This evidence implies a step forward in the understanding of the role of board of directors in corporate strategy, thus having significant implications for academics, companies and regulators, which are both theoretical and practical.
    March 29, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12260   open full text
  • Creating shareholder value via collaborative innovation: the role of industry and resource alignment in knowledge exploration.
    Sebastian Heil, Torsten Bornemann.
    R and D Management. March 20, 2017
    Collaborative innovation provides firms with a privileged opportunity to perform exploration in an externally oriented mode. The central challenges in exploration via collaborative innovation lie in the selection of relevant partners and in gaining access to potentially valuable external knowledge that the focal firm lacks. This article focuses on two aspects of inter‐organizational alignment that affect knowledge differences and may thus help explaining the shareholder value implications arising from collaborative innovation: industry and resource alignment. Relying on data covering 97 bilateral collaborative innovations (194 innovation partners) in R&D intensive high‐technology industries, we used event study methodology and follow‐up hierarchical regression analyses to test our conceptual framework. With regard to industry alignment, results suggest that investors value greater industry distance between collaborating partners, especially when the partner firm provides high‐level R&D resources. Furthermore, the results show a positive effect of supplementary resource alignment (i.e., a focal firm's R&D resources are supplemented by a partner firm's R&D resources) and, notably, a negative effect of complementary resource alignment (i.e., a focal firm's R&D resources are complemented by a partner firm's marketing resources) on investors' valuation of the collaboration's expected future performance. They, thus, contribute to research on shareholder value implications of collaborative innovation. From a managerial perspective, the study provides a better understanding of partner selection and shows how managers should position a collaboration to signal the shareholder value‐creating potential to investors.
    March 20, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12258   open full text
  • Overcoming consumer resistance to innovations – an analysis of adoption triggers.
    Ronny Reinhardt, Nadine Hietschold, Sebastian Gurtner.
    R and D Management. March 16, 2017
    Traditionally, innovation adoption research has focused on the determinants of the states ‘adoption’ and ‘nonadoption’. Aiming at a more detailed understanding of innovation adoption and resistance behavior, this study takes a different perspective and analyzes the transition stage between the nonadoption state and the adoption state to investigate triggers that overcome initial consumer resistance. The study seeks to answer three questions within this novel perspective: (1) What are triggers that lead nonadopters to become adopters? (2) Do adopters and nonadopters differ in their assessment of adoption triggers? and (3) How do adoption triggers relate to innovation adoption barriers? We apply a qualitative exploratory approach that relies on 160 face‐to‐face interviews with both adopters and nonadopters about nine different innovations to generate a framework of adoption triggers. The results reveal that adoption triggers fall into three broad categories: ‘increasing innovation attraction’, ‘reducing barriers’ or ‘tilting the system’. In addition, we find that adopters and nonadopters differ significantly in their assessment of (potential) adoption triggers. Nonadopters mention performance improvements more frequently as crucial adoption triggers than adopters do. In contrast, adopters indicate knowledge acquisition and a social system push significantly more often than nonadopters do. However, adoption triggers and corresponding adoption barriers do not appear to be linked in a systematic way. Instead, adoption triggers such as a social system push exert influence independent of the existing adoption barriers. We suggest strategies for pre‐ and postlaunch strategies to facilitate adoption triggers. We also discuss the implications of our findings for theory and present further research opportunities.
    March 16, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12259   open full text
  • Patent characteristics and the age‐value relationship: study of OceanTomo auctioned US singleton patents for the period 2006–2008.
    Pratheeba Vimalnath, Anjula Gurtoo, Mary Mathew.
    R and D Management. March 15, 2017
    The article characterizes high and low value patents based on the non‐linearity of the age‐value relationship, as an attempt to provide some statistical understanding on the difference in the value of patent characteristics over time. A set of 138 US singleton patents, mainly from the computers and communication field, successfully auctioned by an US auction firm called OceanTomo during 2006–2008 forms the data. Analysis shows evidence of non‐linearity in the patent age‐value relationship and the sensitivity of patent characteristics to temporal dimension in explaining value of patented knowledge. The U‐shaped temporal value of knowledge, identifying older patented knowledge as more valuable, thus, finds support. Furthermore, patents sold in their first half exhibit more lag, less patent scope and less forward citations. Patents sold by firms dominate the younger patent, while the older patent cohort finds more patents sold by individuals. These and other results are discussed for their significance for patent sale. We acknowledge the limitations of a small sample size. Nevertheless, the article provides statistical understanding on the potential characteristics of high and low value patents, explored through the non‐linear age value dynamics.
    March 15, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12262   open full text
  • Implementation of green innovations – The impact of stakeholders and their network relations.
    Alexander Fliaster, Michael Kolloch.
    R and D Management. March 07, 2017
    Green innovation is becoming increasingly important for companies and whole societies, and the research in this field has essentially increased in recent years. As green innovation is expected to ensure both environmental sustainability and economical profitability, it might seriously affect the partly colliding interests of various groups of stakeholders. However, from previous studies less is known about the impact that various groups of stakeholders and particularly the relationships among these stakeholders exert on the implementation of green innovations. To address this gap we first substantiate the relevance of the stakeholder theory for innovation studies in general and green innovations in particular. Furthermore, we argue that from the innovator's perspective green innovations are likely to be affected by the interactions with as well as between many primary and secondary stakeholders. To explore this issue in‐depth we conducted a case study of the implementation of an offshore wind farm in Germany. Our research revealed that network ties among stakeholders can be both conducive and detrimental to the green innovation. The insights gained in our study contribute to the stakeholder analysis for the implementation of green innovations.
    March 07, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12257   open full text
  • Researchers’ willingness to engage in knowledge and technology transfer activities: an exploration of the underlying motivations.
    Erika Sofía Olaya Escobar, Jasmina Berbegal‐Mirabent, Inés Alegre, Oscar Germán Duarte Velasco.
    R and D Management. March 07, 2017
    Increasingly, universities have become conscious of their important role as centres of knowledge generation and diffusion. Accordingly, they have put in place policies, methods and resources to increase knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) activities. However, succeeding in this endeavour is not that easy. An active involvement of researchers is fundamental. Literature examining researchers’ attitude towards KTT activities is limited, offering a partial view on the subject. This study aims at bringing new light to this issue. First, we identify those factors that influence researchers’ willingness to engage in KTT activities. From a comprehensive literature review, we distinguish between intrinsic motivations, extrinsic motivations and university support and services as critical elements. A scale is developed and validated. Second, the scale is applied to the case of R&D contracts. The sample consists of 249 researchers from one of the biggest Spanish universities. Results suggest that the proposed scale has a good fit, indicating that it can be considered as a good instrument for measuring researchers’ willingness to get involved in KTT activities. Policy implications and directions for future research are provided.
    March 07, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12263   open full text
  • Understanding the human side of openness: the fit between open innovation modes and CEO characteristics.
    Joon Mo Ahn, Tim Minshall, Letizia Mortara.
    R and D Management. March 07, 2017
    In small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), where typically the decision‐making process is highly centralised, important decisions, such as open innovation (OI) adoption, will be strongly influenced by the characteristics of their Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). Pointing the attention to the strategic leadership and human elements, this paper sheds light on the micro‐foundation of OI by emphasising the role that the personal traits of key individuals in innovation. OI adoption could result in the enactment of several OI modes – each representing an opportunity of potential change (of market, of technology or/and of the organisation) – and this paper attempts to examine the relationships between the CEO characteristics and each of the OI modes. Our analysis, using Korean SME data, shows that CEOs’ positive attitude, entrepreneurial orientation (EO), patience and education can play important roles in facilitating OI in SMEs. However, this paper also observed that the effects of CEO characteristics on OI adoption were differently configured according to the nature of each OI mode, for example, CEOs’ patience and EO had different impacts depending on the degree of uncertainty in the OI mode. This suggest that OI must be understood as a wide innovation spectrum, and, to increase opportunities for successful OI adoption, CEOs have to attempt to compensate for characteristics they may lack by recruiting appropriate complementary top managements. The research has practical implications for CEOs and policy makers who are interested in enhancing competitiveness of SMEs.
    March 07, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12264   open full text
  • Beyond the water cooler: using socialization to understand use and impact of networking services on collaboration in a business incubator.
    Edwin J. Nijssen, Michel van der Borgh.
    R and D Management. March 07, 2017
    Scholars and policymakers claim that Business Incubators (BIs) add value by facilitating internal cooperation between tenant firms. Taking a tenant perspective, this research investigates the impact of a tenant's length of BI tenure on the use of formal internal networking services the BI management provides, and then on the tenant's level of intra‐BI cooperation. The premise is that BI tenants use and benefit more from formal internal networking services when their socialization through participation in BI informal networking activities is low. When socialization is high they will enjoy a stronger direct effect of tenant tenure on cooperation with other tenants. Findings from data collected from a Dutch BI confirm the premise of our moderated‐mediation model. Results also show that both mechanisms complement each other and that each contributes significantly to tenants' sales growth. It lends support to the effectiveness of BI formal internal networking services, but also stresses the importance of socialization through informal networking activities.
    March 07, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12261   open full text
  • Extending community management to industry‐university‐government organizations.
    Robin Gustafsson, Sirkka Jarvenpaa.
    R and D Management. February 15, 2017
    There has been an emergence of collaborative research networks of industry‐university‐government relationships, or so‐called Triple Helix (TH) organizations. Many TH organizations strive for research and innovation community management. In the innovation and knowledge management literature, community management offers open, participatory, and distributed innovation processes. How community management elements manifest, how they evolve, and what are related contingencies remain poorly understood, especially in the case of TH organizations. Our study examines how two TH organizations in Finland have adopted community management elements, how these elements have evolved, and the contingencies that have affected adoption and evolution. We report on the first 6 years of operations in two different TH organizations. Community‐management elements have accommodated divergent interests in TH organizations, but they have also been subject to considerable degrees of conflict and tension. We extend the innovation community management literature by explicating community management elements in a TH context, we illustrate how TH organizations adopt and evolve these elements, and we identify two contingencies for community management elements in a TH context.
    February 15, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12255   open full text
  • Models with graphical representation for innovation management: a literature review.
    Raoni Barros Bagno, Mario Sergio Salerno, Débora Oliveira da Silva.
    R and D Management. January 04, 2017
    In the last decades, the management of innovation has achieved increasing importance in both academic and business environments. For the companies, an effective engagement in innovation efforts involves the adoption of management models to guide the definition of organizational processes to conduct innovation opportunities throughout the organization. In this context, graphical representations can strongly communicate the central propositions of each model, accelerating the diffusion and influence of such models in both academic and business environments. Based on an academic database search, and snowball procedure, models were selected considering the unique characteristics of their graphical representation. This article contributes to the knowledge in the field by proposing a typology of innovation management models, highlighting model's biases, gaps, strengths and weaknesses, and by identifying important tensions among models that spillover to the innovation management field in both research and practice. This article discusses conflicts regarding the limits of the innovation process (events that start and end the process and complementary approaches), the limits of focusing on processes, the differentiation of research and development and new product development activities. In the end, the article addresses emerging approaches related to radical innovation, design thinking and startups, and stresses contributions for research and practice.
    January 04, 2017   doi: 10.1111/radm.12254   open full text
  • Building relationship innovation in global collaborative partnerships: big data analytics and traditional organizational powers.
    Pervaiz Akhtar, Zaheer Khan, Rekha Rao‐Nicholson, Minhao Zhang.
    R and D Management. December 08, 2016
    This study examines how relationship innovation can be developed in global collaborative partnerships (alliances, joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions). The recently emerging theory of big data analytics linked with traditional organizational powers has attracted a growing interest, but surprisingly little research has been devoted to this important and complex topic. Therefore, after developing the theoretical foundations, our study empirically quantifies the links between the theoretical constructs based on the data collected from chief executive officers, managing directors, and heads of departments who work in contemporary global data‐and‐information driven collaborative partnerships. The results from structural equation modeling indicate that the relationship innovation depends on the power of big data analytics and non‐mediated powers (NMP, expert and referent). The power of big data analytics also mediates the correlation between NMP and relationship innovation. However, mediated powers (coercive and manipulative) negatively affect the power of big data analytics and relationship innovation. The interaction effects further depict that analytically powered partnerships have better relationship innovation compared with those which focus less on the analytical power. Consequently, the contributions of this study provide a deeper understanding of mechanisms of how modern collaborative partnerships can use big data analytics and traditional organizational powers to co‐create relationship innovation.
    December 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12253   open full text
  • Beyond listening: the distinct effects of proactive versus responsive customer orientation on the reduction of uncertainties at the fuzzy front end of innovation.
    Fiona Schweitzer, Maximilian Palmié, Oliver Gassmann.
    R and D Management. November 30, 2016
    The extent to which the intensity of R&D employees' interaction with market‐oriented employees, proactive customer orientation, and responsive customer orientation affect the ability to reduce product‐related uncertainties at the fuzzy front end of innovation was analyzed. They investigated 160 product innovation projects in various high‐tech industries and identified proactive customer orientation as an important moderator of the link between R&D employees' interaction with market‐oriented employees and the reduction of product‐related uncertainties at the fuzzy front end. They also found that responsive customer orientation diminishes the ability to reduce product‐related uncertainties at the fuzzy front end. The theoretical and managerial implications of the results are discussed.
    November 30, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12252   open full text
  • How to select the right public partner in smart city projects.
    Francesco Domenico Sandulli, Alberto Ferraris, Stefano Bresciani.
    R and D Management. November 17, 2016
    Firms that want to exploit Smart City's opportunities need to cooperate with local governments. From a managerial point of view, there is scant research on how to select public partners in Smart City projects. In fact, while there are several cities claiming to be ‘smart’, not all cities fulfil the essential requirements for successful Smart City projects. This paper shows how to build successful public–private alliances in Smart Cities and, more specifically, how to select the right city to test, develop or sell smart technologies. This study uses a multiple‐case research design and follows an exploratory and qualitative methodology. The results show that firms improve the success of their projects if they assess three main aspects of partner selection, these being partner complementarity, commitment and compatibility. The paper, therefore, provides several managerial implications regarding how firms may be more effective in selecting where to start their Smart City projects and how public organisations may become more attractive. Finally, academic implications, limitations and future lines of research are presented.
    November 17, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12250   open full text
  • Decision making for business model development: a process study of effectuation and causation in new technology‐based ventures.
    Isabelle Reymen, Hans Berends, Rob Oudehand, Rutger Stultiëns.
    R and D Management. November 15, 2016
    This study investigates the decision‐making logics used by new ventures to develop their business models. In particular, they focussed on the logics of effectuation and causation and how their dynamics shape the development of business models over time. They found that the effectual decision‐making logic was used dominantly to generate a viable value proposition for a specific customer segment. Causal logic is then used dominantly to define the other business model components in relation to the value proposition and customer segment. When a shortage of resources emerges, causal logic is replaced by an increase in effectual decision‐making again. They concluded that before investing significant resources in a business model it was crucial for firms to reduce, as far as possible, technological and market uncertainty through effectual strategies to avoid high re‐configuration costs later.
    November 15, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12249   open full text
  • The effect of the dynamics of knowledge base complexity on Schumpeterian patterns of innovation: the upstream petroleum industry.
    Ali Maleki, Alessandro Rosiello, David Wield.
    R and D Management. November 15, 2016
    This article analyzes important changes in technological innovation in the upstream petroleum industry. It provides evidence that shifts in sectoral patterns of innovation over the petroleum industry's lifecycle from the 1970s up to 2005 were dependent on the dynamics of knowledge base complexity (KBC), a key dimension of an industry's technological regime. Accordingly, observed shifts in innovation patterns are understood to be the aggregated strategic response of industry innovators to changes in the technological regime. The article proposes a quantitative method for exploring KBC and Schumpeterian patterns of innovation, and interactions between the two at the industry level. As the industry evolved, its knowledge base moved to higher orders of complexity creating a shift in the Schumpeterian pattern of innovation. Increased KBC was found to alter Schumpeterian patterns from Mark I toward a ‘modified’ Mark II. Instead of coming predominantly from ‘traditional’ established oil operators, technological innovation was increasingly triggered by a new class of emergent integrated service companies – ‘second tier’ systems integrators of the upstream sector able to cope with increased KBC.
    November 15, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12251   open full text
  • Improving new product development using big data: a case study of an electronics company.
    Kim Hua Tan, Yuanzhu Zhan.
    R and D Management. November 04, 2016
    Big data is becoming more important to the new product development (NPD) efforts of global firms. Although the term of big data is not new, very few studies have investigated how firms can harvest big data to facilitate NPD. The purpose of this article is to present the means by which big data can be used to assist firms in NPD to shorten the time to market, improving customers’ product adoption and reducing costs. This research is based on a two‐step approach. First, we identified and analysed three world‐leading firms that have successfully integrated big data in supporting their NPD. Then, the observations from the firms were used to determine the principle involved in leveraging big data to reduce product development lead times and costs. Given the exploratory nature of the research objective, a participant‐observation case study is adopted in which during a 6‐month period a NPD project in a fast moving high‐tech industry was investigated. This study provides empirical confirmation for the three principles to big data supported NPD: (a) Autonomy; (b) Connection; and (c) Ecosystem. It is termed the ACE principles which we believe represent a paradigm shift to help firms unlock the power of big data and make NPD faster and less costly. This article provides guideline to firms in harvesting big data to better support their NPD: it allows organisations to launch new products to market as quickly as possible; it helps organisations to determine the weaknesses of the product earlier in the development cycle; it allows functionalities to be added to a product that customers are willing to pay a premium for, while eliminating features they do not want; and it identifies and then prioritises customer needs for specific markets.
    November 04, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12242   open full text
  • Inertia, aspirations, and response to attainment discrepancy in design contests.
    Joseph Lampel, Pushkar P. Jha.
    R and D Management. October 25, 2016
    The process of evaluating performance relative to aspirations is widely used by many studies of organizational and technological change. The standard performance feedback model argues that decision makers act in function of attainment discrepancy between performance and aspirations. The theory also states that response to attainment discrepancy is influenced by inertia. Organizational research suggests that there are two types of inertia that we identify in this paper as performance‐based inertia, and nonperformance‐based inertia. We examine the influence of these two types of inertia on the two types of attainment discrepancy as identified by standard performance feedback theory: attainment discrepancy that is based on historical aspirations and attainment discrepancy based on social aspirations. We examine mechanisms that account for the influence of both types of inertia, and derive hypotheses that predict their moderating effect on attainment discrepancy. We test these hypotheses using data on 112 teams that participated in ‘Robot Wars’, a tournament organized as a contest between teams that field machines specifically designed for the event. Our dependent variable is the magnitude of design change prior to participating in each tournament. Our results show, as predicted, that: performance‐based inertia negatively moderates design change in response to attainment discrepancy that is based on social aspirations and; nonperformance‐based inertia negatively moderates design change in response to attainment discrepancy that is based on social aspirations. However, contrary to our predictions, our results show no relationship between nonperformance‐based inertia and design change in response to attainment discrepancy based on historical aspirations. We find a positive and significant result for the relationship between performance‐based inertia and design change in response to attainment discrepancy based on historical aspirations. Our study contributes to research on the relationship between performance feedback and technological decision making in contexts where inertia can alter assessment of new product introduction risks.
    October 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12240   open full text
  • Eco‐innovation and business performance: the moderating effects of environmental orientation and resource commitment in green‐oriented SMEs.
    Jing A. Zhang, Sara Walton.
    R and D Management. October 21, 2016
    Drawing on the eco‐innovation and resource‐based view, this research attempts to contribute to the eco‐innovation‐performance debate by examining the effects of eco‐innovation on business performance. In particular, we propose that the eco‐innovation–performance relationship is contingent on environmental orientation and resources commitment. The analysis of 83 green‐oriented SMEs in New Zealand suggests that eco‐innovation has a positive effect on business performance. More interestingly, the findings show although environmental orientation does not directly influence business performance, it enhances the positive effect of eco‐innovation on business performance. The results further suggest that green‐oriented firms will reap more performance benefit of eco‐innovation when they commit more organizational resources.
    October 21, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12241   open full text
  • Joint problem solving and organizational learning capacity in new product innovation.
    Lutao Ning, Jian Li.
    R and D Management. October 21, 2016
    There is a growing need for firms to acquire knowledge externally, but the process has become increasingly complicated. This article studies the mediating roles of the three process dimensions of organizational learning capacity (OLC), namely, knowledge acquisition, transformation, and application capabilities, in the context of a joint problem solving (JPS) arrangement with external collaborators for new product innovation. They employed the structural equation modelling method and analyse a sample of 331 high‐tech manufacturers in China. Their results supported a conceptual model that shows (i) JPS exerts a positive impact on knowledge acquisition and transformation capabilities; (ii) these two capabilities promote knowledge application capacity; (iii) knowledge acquisition alone, and the combination of application and transformation capabilities, mediate the effect of JPS on both innovation efficacy and efficiency. Knowledge acquisition and application capabilities also jointly mediate the effect of JPS on innovation efficacy. They added to the existing literature by highlighting the need to consider the mediating roles of different OLC dimensions and the external context of JPS for learning capacity acquisition. Our model provides a practical framework for managers to better understand and influence OLC dimensions to improve innovation when engaging in JPS.
    October 21, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12245   open full text
  • Innovation policy in progress. Institutional intermediation in public procurement of innovation: satellite telecommunications in Italy.
    Matteo Landoni.
    R and D Management. October 21, 2016
    This paper aims to explore a mechanism of institutional intermediation to sustain public procurement of innovation. By exploring the development of innovative solutions for telecommunications satellites in Italy, this study proposes an analytical view on the role of supporting institutions in public procurement of innovation and discusses the relation between the source of public demand and the contracting companies. Eventually, it argues that a public agency can manage funds, coordinate companies’ technological capabilities, and stimulate a sense of cooperation to achieve innovation. The research finds originality in bringing the growing theory concerning public procurement into a dynamic institutional setting to discuss the emerging role of the public competent costumer. The case‐analysis shows how institutionalization of an innovation intermediary enables efficient procurement. Propositions prescribe powerful instruments for dealing with market uncertainty and technological complexity, and find the agency to act as a knowledge intermediary and companies coordinator.
    October 21, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12246   open full text
  • Diversity is strategy: the effect of R&D team diversity on innovative performance.
    Marian Garcia Martinez, Ferdaous Zouaghi, Teresa Garcia Marco.
    R and D Management. October 21, 2016
    Diversity in the workplace has attracted significant interest in organisations that want to attract and retain talented employees. Breakthrough innovation requires a wider knowledge base, and organisations increasingly rely on multidisciplinary R&D teams to identify scientific developments that bridge gaps and reduce time to market. However, research on the performance implications of R&D team diversity remains limited and the empirical evidence inconsistent. This paper investigates the impact of surface and deep‐level diversity on R&D teams’ innovative performance and how diversity dimensions interact to drive innovation. We find supportive evidence that R&D team characteristics influence innovation outcomes, confirming our hypothesising that diversity is a valuable strategy for an organisation to pursue as it provides greater cognitive ability. Each diversity facet however has its own distinct effects depending on the novelty of innovation and industry. Yet, diversity is not solely positive and excessive heterogeneity could be detrimental to R&D team performance. Our findings suggest that high diversity in gender or skills in cognitively diverse teams might be negative attributes to take into consideration. Senior managers and organisations should therefore consider the appropriate mix of capabilities to benefit from creativity in diverse R&D teams and avoid possible conflict and distrust associated with diversity.
    October 21, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12244   open full text
  • Multiple dimensions of power influencing knowledge integration in supply chains.
    Thomas Matheus, Mark N. K. Saunders, Suranjan Chakraborty.
    R and D Management. October 09, 2016
    This study investigates how multiple dimensions of power each facilitate knowledge integration within innovation projects in supply chains and their interrelationships. Adopting a process perspective of knowledge, we offer an alternative to much of the existing debate, which has focussed on the possession of resources. We collected data from four case‐study Original Equipment Manufacturers and six associated suppliers and analysed these using Template Analysis and cross‐case analysis. Our findings reveal how the power of the system, operationalized through relative performance measures, performance measurement mechanisms and the individuals in‐charge of them, provides a facilitative context within which other dimensions of power operate. Here, the power of resources (expert and legitimate power), processes (associated with raising issues, cross‐functional teams, early supplier involvement and reviews) and meaning (creating legitimacy through reviews) interact to support knowledge integration within innovation projects in supply chains. This, we argue, emphasises the plurality of power dimensions deployed and importance of their interrelationships in facilitating knowledge integration within hierarchical supply chain networks.
    October 09, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12243   open full text
  • How open is too open? The mitigating role of appropriation mechanisms in R&D cooperation settings.
    Theresa Veer, Annika Lorenz, Knut Blind.
    R and D Management. August 09, 2016
    In this article, we investigate the influence of firms’ R&D cooperation activities on their likelihood to experience imitation. Analyses of firm‐level survey data concerning the R&D cooperation behavior of 2,797 German firms reveal that companies engaging in R&D cooperation face significantly more imitation than their peers that do not cooperate on R&D. Further, we show that cooperation with all potential collaboration partner types except universities and research institutions and in all phases of the innovation process increases the risk of imitation. While we find evidence that intellectual property rights (IPR) generally work well as governance mechanisms moderating the relationship between R&D cooperation and imitation, contracts do not. Hence, IPR apparently provide better protection against imitation than contracts. Our findings indicate that the risks associated with firms’ increased engagement in R&D cooperation could eventually harm the production of new knowledge.
    August 09, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12232   open full text
  • War for talents—How perceived organizational innovativeness affects employer attractiveness.
    Luise Pauline Sommer, Sven Heidenreich, Matthias Handrich.
    R and D Management. July 29, 2016
    Recruiting high potentials is the foundation for creating knowledge, innovation and competitive advantages. Unfortunately, many companies face the problem of having a hard time recruiting high potentials in a tightening labor market. To secure future innovation, growth and competitiveness companies must be attractive for potential employees. Within this respect, past research suggests that innovative companies might be at an advantage as they appear more attractive to employees in general and to those with an innovative personality in specific. Hence, HR communication might use an organization's innovativeness within employer branding to attract high potentials. However, current literature falls short to provide empirical evidence on whether and how the communication of organizational innovativeness affects employer attractiveness and especially attracts innovative employees. The results of our scenario‐based experiment (n = 322) show that organizations with an innovative product portfolio and a strong innovation culture appear more attractive to potential employees. These effects turned out to be even stronger for employees which are highly innovative as they care a great deal about the organizational innovativeness of the company they work for. Thus, our findings suggest that communicating organizational innovativeness within employer branding is an effective measure not only to improve employer perceptions in general, but also to attract innovative employees.
    July 29, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12230   open full text
  • Using strategic ambiguity as management practice in academic R&D: an ethnographic study of MIT SENSEable City Lab.
    Luca Simeone.
    R and D Management. July 27, 2016
    This article explores the role of strategic ambiguity as a management practice, as used in SENSEable City Lab – a R&D‐oriented lab located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. Although literature has already explored strategic ambiguity in various organizational settings, studies focusing on how academic institutions use strategic ambiguity in the context of R&D are quite sparse. The article aims at filling this gap by reporting on a study conducted by the author across 2011 and 2014 in a R&D‐oriented academic lab and reflecting on the potential of strategic ambiguity as an effective dialogic strategy to appreciate differences among internal organization members and with external partners. The article also examines some shortcomings of strategic ambiguity, such as the level of anxiety reported by some members of the lab.
    July 27, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12229   open full text
  • Academic spin‐off creation: barriers and how to overcome them.
    Maria Neves, Mário Franco.
    R and D Management. July 27, 2016
    The aim of this study is to analyze the process of academic spin‐off creation, identifying the barriers to suggest how to overcome them. For this purpose, a case study method was adopted, and as data‐collecting instruments, several in‐depth interviews and documentary analysis were used from three academic spin‐offs. The empirical evidence captures the different views of the founding researchers of the academic spin‐offs, the researching lecturers in the department creating the spin‐offs and the manager of the technology transfer office at the Portuguese university studied here. The results show that the different perceptions of barriers are seen to be solved through an internal strategy within the university. The findings also show that applied research should be valued in assessing lecturers, as it contributes, not only to the link with industry, and therefore to regional development, but also to universities' sustainability, overcoming the lack of financial support as a result of constant budget cuts. The contact networks resulting from universities' links with the different stakeholders will benefit the spin‐offs themselves, facilitating their survival in the first years of their life.
    July 27, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12231   open full text
  • R&D Management Journal Special Issue “Open Innovation in the Digital Age”.

    R and D Management. July 26, 2016
    There is no abstract available for this paper.
    July 26, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12223   open full text
  • A systematic literature review of university technology transfer from a quadruple helix perspective: toward a research agenda.
    Kristel Miller, Rodney McAdam, Maura McAdam.
    R and D Management. July 25, 2016
    Within recent years, there has been a rapid expansion of the University's role in economic development. This has resulted in University Technology Transfer (UTT) taking place within an increasingly complex network of regional stakeholders. This complexity has resulted in quadruple helix models where the triple helix model of academia, industry and regional government now includes societal based innovation users as a fourth helix. Despite this development, extant research is fragmented and lacks coherent frameworks and conceptualisations which fully depict the dynamic and evolving nature of UTT. Accordingly, this article reviews Mode 2 UTT from a quadruple helix perspective to identify key themes to develop a research agenda which reflects progression from a triple into a quadruple helix ecosystem.
    July 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12228   open full text
  • An innovation activity model for Very Small Entities in the software sector: an empirical study.
    Ricardo Eito‐Brun, Miguel‐Angel Sicilia.
    R and D Management. July 15, 2016
    Innovation management is a subdiscipline of management that studies the rules that govern the generation, diffusion, adoption of innovation, and relationships between innovation inputs and outputs. A great number of innovative products and services depend on software. In the software industry, many small entities act as subcontractors that develop components that are later integrated into larger industrial systems. However, these small entities do not have the resources needed to support long‐term R&D activities and they also lack innovation management models which makes the planning and execution of innovation management difficult. These same small enterprises face similar challenges in the software development process. However, the ISO/IEC 29110 standard provides small enterprises with a clear path in implementing a systematic software development process. The planning and execution of innovation management activities may also benefit from a similar approach. This article describes an innovation activity model suited to the characteristics of small entities whose main stream of revenue is software development. Using the existing literature, standards, and the practical experience of companies with a successful history of developing innovative software‐based products, this study identifies the activities and practices that lead to the development of innovative products. Interfaces between innovation management activities, software development processes, and work products are also identified.
    July 15, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12226   open full text
  • How public policy can stimulate the capabilities of firms to innovate in a traditional industry through academic engagement: the case of the Swedish food industry.
    Maureen McKelvey, Daniel Ljungberg.
    R and D Management. July 15, 2016
    This paper shows how public policy can stimulate innovation in low‐ and medium‐technology industries, by connecting firms and universities through collaborative scientific research. A conceptual framework proposes that collaborative research between universities and firms may result in tangible innovative outcomes, such as new or improved products or processes, and intangible outcomes that strengthen firms’ internal capabilities and thereby indirectly increase their innovativeness. Findings are presented from a case study of a Swedish public policy stimulating the development of firm capabilities for innovation, through collaborative research projects connecting universities and firms in the food industry between 1998 and 2006. In line with the conceptual framework, the analysis distinguishes between (i) direct outcomes, such as new products; and (ii) indirect outcomes in the form of the development of firms’ capabilities to innovate. Based on this analysis, the initial conceptual framework is expanded to indicate how policy can stimulate the development of firms’ capabilities.
    July 15, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12224   open full text
  • Gravitating toward the quadruple helix: international connections for the enhancement of a regional innovation system in Northeast Italy.
    Yong Kyu Lew, Zaheer Khan, Sara Cozzio.
    R and D Management. July 14, 2016
    The majority of previous Regional Innovation System (RIS) studies generally provide a rather static overview of the roles of innovation‐creating actors. This article explores a single RIS in Trentino in Italy. The case shows that the roles of three actors (i.e., the provincial government, academia/research centers, and firms) are vital in creating the RIS, and that the provincial‐level government policy is important in supporting the innovation activities of regional research institutions and firms aimed at developing their international connections. The public‐private research collaboration and international connections of these actors are the key determinants of the development of an advanced RIS, but have largely been ignored in the extant RIS literature. This article extends the existing RIS and Triple Helix research to an international dimension, highlighting the complementary role of international connections within the RIS, thus reflecting a shift toward Quadruple Helix.
    July 14, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12227   open full text
  • Towards a better understanding of the dynamics of value creation in R&D intensive small firms.
    Sébastien Casault, Aard J. Groen, Jonathan D. Linton.
    R and D Management. July 06, 2016
    Standard financial and economic theories suggest that the stock value of R&D intensive High Technology Small Firms (HTSF) undergo a geometric random walk. Such a model neglects to account for observed periods where firms experience large fluctuations due to uncertainty related to its R&D activities, external competitive or regulatory environments. Empirical evidence also shows that the behavior of these firms is difficult to describe – let alone predict – using this Gaussian process. With ambidexterity as a theoretical basis, we show that the value of HTSF can be statistically described as the result of a combination of two distinct random walks: an exploitative steady state component characterized by Neo‐Marshallian equilibrium and low volatility; and a more dynamic component with high volatility reflecting bursts of large and rapid changes associated with Schumpeterian outcomes of explorative processes. A mixture of two normal distributions provides an overall function that is more reflective of the empirical evidence and provides a quantitative measure for the theory that firms engage in concurrent exploration/exploitation activities. A linear relationship between the two components of the mixture distribution that describe the stock value of these firms also emerges. By understanding this dual nature and its impact on stock value, firms can better manage resources and prepare for the increase in variability that are associated with exploration activities. A more accurate financial description of HTSF that reduces or that anticipates uncertainty may lead to financial tools and option pricing methods that put a premium on the value of HTSF markets, incentivizing investors to invest more in such firms.
    July 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12221   open full text
  • Effects of R&D policy choice on accounting performance and market value.
    Yanni Wang, Rong Du, Kai S. Koong, Weiguo Fan.
    R and D Management. June 27, 2016
    Using primary data that was gathered from the annual reports of companies listed in the Chinese Stock Exchanges, this study analyzes and compares the different effects of R&D policy choice on their accounting performances and market values. For the period 2007 through 2014, the results show that different R&D policy choices provided different implications in firm value and firm strategy to the market. Specifically, the firms choosing to capitalize their R&D investments have higher market value, implying that the strategy was focused on sustaining their long‐term development. On the contrary, the companies selecting to expense their R&D expenditure have higher accounting performance and the focus was on improving short‐term gains. The results of this study suggest that the policy choice on R&D capitalization and expensing is a trade‐off result between the accounting performance and the market value of a firm.
    June 27, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12225   open full text
  • How to create commercial value from patents: the role of patent management.
    Holger Ernst, James Conley, Nils Omland.
    R and D Management. May 20, 2016
    This article examines the relationship between patent management and indicators of a firm's financial and patenting performance. The empirical analyses are based on a sample of 158 technology‐based firms from the United States and Germany across multiple industries. The results show that two important dimensions of patent management, specifically patent protection management and patent information management, are positively correlated with a firm's level of financial profitability and the strategic and financial impact of its patent portfolio. This implies that patent protection and information management are important managerial capabilities of the firm that determine the level of value it can create from patents. We further find that a firm's technology strategy moderates the relationship between patent protection management and firm performance; it does, however, not moderate the relationship between patent information management and firm performance. Hence, the effectiveness of certain managerial capabilities on value creation from patents are contingent upon specific boundary conditions. Our findings have implications for improving firm performance through patent management.
    May 20, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12210   open full text
  • Opportunity recognition and SME performance: the mediating effect of business model innovation.
    Hai Guo, Jintong Tang, Zhongfeng Su, Jerome A. Katz.
    R and D Management. May 19, 2016
    Opportunity recognition is vital for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), but SMEs face challenges in capturing recognized opportunities. Given that opportunity recognition does not automatically lead to higher SME performance and that SMEs need to take appropriate actions to exploit recognized opportunities to achieve better performance, it is imperative to explore the mediators that enable SMEs to translate opportunity recognition into higher performance. This study proposes that business model innovation may be a key conduit through which opportunity recognition affects SME performance. Based on a dataset of 155 SMEs, we find that the positive relationship between opportunity recognition and SME performance is mediated by business model innovation. These findings not only aid SMEs in accomplishing the performance effect of opportunity recognition, but also provide some insights into the implications of business model innovation.
    May 19, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12219   open full text
  • Stakeholder integration in new product development: a systematic analysis of drivers and firm capabilities.
    María Vaquero Martín, Ronny Reinhardt, Sebastian Gurtner.
    R and D Management. May 11, 2016
    In this article, we develop a conceptual model of stakeholder integration in new product development (NPD) that (i) explains the drivers of the process and (ii) proposes a framework of capabilities that firms need for successful stakeholder integration. The focus lies on external stakeholders that directly influence the adoption of new products. We conduct a systematic literature review and content analyze a sample of 96 peer‐reviewed journal articles. The study is restricted to the medical device industry to enable the use of specific search terms and the consistent categorization of information. We dedicate a section to showing how the framework applies to other settings. The drivers of stakeholder integration are classified into push factors (i.e., expected benefits for the focal firm) and pull factors (i.e., expected benefits for the stakeholders). This study provides an initial model of how stakeholder integration works based on its drivers. In addition, three related stakeholder integration capabilities emerge: stakeholder identification capability, stakeholder interaction capability and stakeholder input integration capability. The paper proposes a description of these capabilities for stakeholder integration in NPD and, thus, contributes to stakeholder theory and research on the management of NPD. The results open new paths for empirical testing and offer practical guidance on how to successfully integrate stakeholders in NPD processes.
    May 11, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12220   open full text
  • Milking the myth: innovation funding in theory and practice.
    Stuart Macdonald.
    R and D Management. May 06, 2016
    The history of Silicon Valley was re‐invented in the early 1980s to suit contemporary requirements to portray innovation as less a product of circumstance than the culmination of managed process. Stanford University was cast as the source of the information required for innovation and Silicon Valley as its science park. This is myth, and myth can be a powerful weapon. Being based on faith rather than reason, myth is invulnerable to attack by logic. This article looks at recent exploitation of this Silicon Valley myth in support of a UK government programme to fund universities in recognition of their contribution to the innovation of local firms. Adherence to the myth was essential to securing funding, and proved an obstacle to the contribution the universities might have made to innovation.
    May 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12212   open full text
  • A long and winding road: 40 years of R&D Management.
    John Rigby.
    R and D Management. April 28, 2016
    Established in 1970, R&D Management is today one of the leading journals of the technology and innovation management (TIM) field that spans the business and management subject areas. It publishes innovative research with high academic interest. This paper reviews the journal's history and the major contributions of its first 40 years, examines its present position in the context of TIM literature, and then looks at the factors which might affect the journal in the future. Descriptive and nonparametric bibliometric methods are used to examine the historic performance of the journal and the field, its current position, and the factors shaping future development.
    April 28, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12214   open full text
  • Exploring the linkage between business model (&) innovation and the strategy of the firm.
    Patrick Spieth, Dirk Schneckenberg, Kurt Matzler.
    R and D Management. April 20, 2016
    Research on the phenomenon of business model (&) innovation is taking place in related perspectives. Next to innovation and entrepreneurship literature, theories of firm strategy closely relate to the ongoing conceptualization of the business model concept. We first review in this article the linkage between the business model, innovating the business model and firm strategy in extant literature. We focus specifically on the explanatory power of the business model concept to develop insights for strategic firm behaviour, and we explore the role of business model innovation as analytic perspective for identifying sources of firm performance. Building on this conceptual overview, we subsequently present how the articles in this special issue contribute in the light of strategy theory to the understanding of the phenomenon of business model innovation. Finally, we develop some themes for future research on the topic.
    April 20, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12218   open full text
  • Principal researcher and project manager: who should drive R&D projects?
    Aníbal N. Cassanelli, Gonzalo Fernandez‐Sanchez, Maria Clara Guiridlian.
    R and D Management. April 14, 2016
    In this paper, it is analyzed the hypothesis that in R&D the principal researcher (PR) is accepted as the coordinator or project manager (PM), carrying out the search for financing and to manage contracts, resources, cost, time, scope, risk and uncertainty, communication, stakeholders and so on, in addition to internal research activities. Thus, this study tries to verify this hypothesis through a major literature review in different types of projects developed by university, but also with a look to industry and industry‐university cooperation. Two case studies are also analyzed, centered in its R&D project management maturity level. It is concluded that there is an important issue in projects’ success and in the time spent by PR in management, work for which they are under trained; while at the industry there is a greater approach to project management by the proximity of the innovation projects to other industrial projects. Following these initial findings and according to the case study results, it is proposed that R&D Projects in universities would be separated into two synergistic knowledge areas: R&D Management and Project Management. It is also recommended to allocate them to two distinct roles, where they could add value to R&D through their better knowledge and skills.
    April 14, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12213   open full text
  • Business model innovation processes of average market players: a qualitative‐empirical analysis.
    Sven M. Laudien, Birgit Daxböck.
    R and D Management. April 13, 2016
    Business model innovation is by now mainly understood as a strategic option for firms to enhance competitiveness. As a result, business model innovation research usually focuses on outperforming firms that deliberately innovate their business models. We enhance this rather narrow perspective by analysing business model innovation processes of average market players against the background of a multiple‐case study. Our findings show that average market players do at least initially not deliberately pursue business model innovation. Instead, they experience business model innovation as a highly emergent and very often unintended process. We identify four phases of this process and describe them in detail. Furthermore, we highlight factors that determine whether a firm is able to complete the process step or not. The results of our study are reflected in a newly developed process model that considerably enhances the understanding of business model innovation processes with regard to average market players and may serve as framework for future research.
    April 13, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12208   open full text
  • Publicly funded R&D for public sector performance and efficiency: evidence from Europe.
    Andrés Maroto, Jorge Gallego, Luis Rubalcaba.
    R and D Management. April 13, 2016
    Public sectors are under increasing pressure to provide better services and improve their efficiency in order to boost economic growth and social welfare. The promotion of R&D and innovation has proved to be a key determinant of economic performance of countries. However, little is known about the effect of publicly funded R&D activities on the performance and efficiency of public sectors. A better understanding behind such relationship is crucial, particularly in present times of public budget constraints. Accordingly, the article measures the public sector performance and efficiency of European countries by the construction of composite indicators. Moreover, it explores and tests the role of publicly funded R&D on public sector performance (using multivariate techniques and econometric analyses) and efficiency (by means of a non‐ parametric approach). Results indicate that publicly funded R&D should be considered a dimension of public sector performance, particularly when complementarities between private and public R&D emerge, but that it also plays a role on its efficiency.
    April 13, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12215   open full text
  • Bridging knowledge boundaries: the use of boundary objects in virtual innovation communities.
    Marc Marheineke, Hagen Habicht, Kathrin M. Möslein.
    R and D Management. April 08, 2016
    We explore objects which are used to span knowledge boundaries (Carlile, ) in order to establish shared understanding in virtual innovation communities. In particular, the use of a mix of such boundary objects during collaboration on a virtual whiteboard is studied. Five collaborations with in total 31 participants are analyzed on the micro level of activities. We conceptualize collaboration activities according to Dennis et al. () as conveyance of information and convergence on meaning. Both, conveyance and convergence activities are necessary to establish shared understanding. Our results show why and how boundary objects are used specific to conveyance or convergence activities. We, thus, provide confirmative empirical evidence for the theoretical propositions of Dennis et al. () and extend current research on knowledge sharing in virtual innovation by showing how exactly boundary objects contribute. Practical implications include propositions for the design of collaboration platforms and innovation processes.
    April 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12216   open full text
  • Measuring firms’ imitation activity.
    Ahmed Doha, Mark Pagell, Morgan Swink, David Johnston.
    R and D Management. April 08, 2016
    Although imitation is more abundant and prevalent than innovation in firms’ product and process development activities, it has been understudied in research on innovation and R&D management. For example, a valid and reliable objective firm‐level measure of the intensity of imitation activity is lacking in the extant literature. This measure is necessary to understand the antecedents and consequences of firms’ imitation activity, which has implications for R&D management. In this paper, we present novel methods that employ patent infringement litigations data to improve on the validity and reliability of measuring firms’ imitation activity. We validate our proposed measure by presenting a first model and test of R&D as a multiple‐output production function with R&D expenditure as the primary input, and innovation and imitation as joint outputs. This is in contrast to current R&D models as a single‐output production function of either innovation or imitation. This study uses a sample of 227 public firms from the computer, semiconductor, and pharmaceutical industries in the United States during 1991–2010.
    April 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12217   open full text
  • The effect of board human capital on the performance of technical alliance investments.
    Li‐Yu Chen, Jung‐Ho Lai.
    R and D Management. March 31, 2016
    Despite boards of directors’ prominent involvement in strategic alliance (SA) decisions in practice and reports from news media, there is relatively little academic research exploring the board's value for a firm's technical SA investments involving a technical transfer or R&D, which are characterized by a high level of uncertainty, information asymmetry, and extreme complexity. Anchored in the resource dependence theory, this study aims to address this important issue by examining how board of directors contribute their human capital, in the form of relevant strategic experience, may mitigate the core challenges managers face when pursuing technical SAs and thereby influencing their outcomes. Our empirical results show that when outside directors hold more extensive alliance experience, they can better execute their consulting function and improve the firm's technical alliance performance. In addition, directors with experience specifically related to technical alliances also have a positive effect on performance. Last, we find that the impact of alliance experience on technical alliance performance is positively moderated by the size of directors’ prior affiliated companies and their share ownership in the focal firm.
    March 31, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12209   open full text
  • Learning to license technology: the role of experience and workforce's skills in Spanish manufacturing firms.
    Mattia Bianchi, José Lejarraga.
    R and D Management. March 22, 2016
    Firms increasingly pursue technology licensing for appropriating economic returns from their R&D investments. Despite this tendency, extracting revenues from licensing remains a challenge for most firms. This article explores the role of task‐specific experience and of workforce skills as determinants of superior licensing volume. The rationale is that these factors contribute to the development of a desorptive capacity that allows companies to overcome the complexities posed by technology licensing. Using panel data of Spanish manufacturing firms, we find that prior experience in licensing positively affects licensing revenues at a decreasing rate. These learning‐by‐doing effects are strengthened when firms have a higher proportion of their workforce endowed with advanced skills, whereas they are reduced when firms have a higher proportion of low‐skilled employees. These results contribute to licensing and open innovation research by partly specifying the nature and anatomy of desorptive capacity and by highlighting the key role of intellectual human capital in licensing, whose contribution depends on the skills level. They also inform managers on the mechanisms that can enhance their firms’ licensing volume.
    March 22, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12211   open full text
  • The evaluation of risk in pharmaceutical research: a study of current models and techniques.
    Anne‐Marie Oreskovich, John Gittins.
    R and D Management. March 16, 2016
    This paper reviews the need for risk management in pharmaceutical industry research and development and the analytical procedures available for that purpose. These are shown to be inadequate. We propose two new measures of risk which are illustrated with the use of current pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) data. Our most important findings are twofold: that risk quantification in pharmaceutical R&D today often does not capture the full extent of a company's exposure to financial risk, and that better methods such as our new risk measures can and should be developed. We hope that our work both in this literature review and in the creation of new risk measures will inspire companies to take a closer look at their current R&D management strategies, and to refresh and update their risk mitigation policies accordingly.
    March 16, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12200   open full text
  • Improving the effectiveness of nondisclosure agreements by strengthening concept learning.
    Olive E. Wetter, Franziska Hofer, Philipp Schmutz, Klaus Jonas.
    R and D Management. February 11, 2016
    Intellectual property infringements rank among the top economic crimes, even though there are mechanisms in place to prevent their occurrence. One such mechanism are nondisclosure agreements, which, however, have been reported to fail in practice. This article argues that this may be overcome by strengthening employees’ concept learning. In an experiment, we investigated whether extended nondisclosure agreements, which provide the employee with detailed explanations and examples, lead to better recognition of trade secrets as compared to a standard nondisclosure agreement or no agreement at all. It was found that the extended nondisclosure agreement indeed increased participants’ ability to judge what falls under the trade secret law, whereas the standard nondisclosure agreement showed no such effect. Furthermore, the effects of the factors ‘Involvement’, ‘Specificity’, ‘Publicity’, and ‘Purpose’ on the identification of trade secrets could be proven experimentally. Employees’ judgments of whether an information represents a trade secret seem to rely on general cognitive processes. From this follows that concept learning could be integrated into systematic approaches for protecting intellectual property.
    February 11, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12203   open full text
  • Treat your suppliers right! Aligning strategic innovation orientation in captive supplier relationships with relational and transactional governance mechanisms.
    Thomas Clauss, Patrick Spieth.
    R and D Management. February 09, 2016
    Buyer‐supplier relationships are regarded as a source of competitive advantage, as suppliers can contribute valuable but imperfectly tradable resources. To coordinate these resources in the course of joint value creation and mitigate the risks of opportunism, buyers are required to establish transactional and relational governance mechanisms. While recent research showed that these mechanisms are intertwined with each other, little is known about the effects of different governance mechanisms in relationships with captive suppliers. Especially in case of captive suppliers, which are highly dependent on the buyer, the governance approach of the buyer affects the relationship and the supplier on a long‐term base. Based on unique data of 101 suppliers in the aviation industry, we show that transactional and relational governance mechanisms exert different effects on the efficiency and effectiveness of relationships with captive suppliers. While transactional governance is primarily suited to foster buyer‐supplier efficiency (e.g. cost or lead time reduction), relational governance strengthens buyer‐supplier effectiveness (e.g. product customization or joint innovation). Additionally, the choice of a governance mechanism indirectly affects the strategic innovation orientation of captive suppliers. Focusing on buyer‐supplier effectiveness stimulates strategic innovation orientation of captive suppliers; high buyer‐supplier efficiency leads to opposite effects. Our paper emphasizes that misalignment of governance mechanisms and the objective of buyer‐supplier relationships can limit strategic innovation orientation.
    February 09, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12202   open full text
  • Innovation management practices: cross‐sectorial adoption, variation, and effectiveness.
    Joe Tidd, Ben Thuriaux‐Alemán.
    R and D Management. January 25, 2016
    Innovation management practices (IMPs) represent the codification of innovation research and management experience, and offer the potential to improve innovation performance. Studies suggest limited awareness of IMPs amongst practitioners, and even lower rates of application, and we know little of their perceived importance or effectiveness in different industries. Our paper assesses the use of eight functional groups of IMPs within and across sectors, drawing on a sample of 292 valid responses, based on survey data and associated and validated case studies. Overall, we find significant variation in usage patterns across sectors and a positive relationship between the use of IMPs and innovation outcomes. However, only a very small number of innovation management practices can be considered to be universally positive, including external technology intelligence gathering, and technology and product portfolio management. We find that the use and effectiveness of most IMPs varies by industry. This suggests there is significant potential for the more widespread application of some IMPs, but that managers must be highly selective.
    January 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12199   open full text
  • Business model innovation and decision making: uncovering mechanisms for coping with uncertainty.
    Dirk Schneckenberg, Vivek K. Velamuri, Christian Comberg, Patrick Spieth.
    R and D Management. January 25, 2016
    As a research subject, business model innovation spans the strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship fields. Yet, despite the importance of the concept, prior work has paid little attention to how decision‐makers cope with uncertainty and gain understanding about interdependencies in new business model configurations. To address this gap, we combine top‐down theorising and evidence‐based exploration and seek to unpack some of the coping mechanisms that operate in the evolutionary view of business model innovation. Using in‐depth interviewing to collect data, our study reveals five strategies – customer centricity, value co‐creation, capability evolution, ecosystem growth, and adaptive pricing – that decision‐makers apply to cope with uncertainty in business model innovation. We find that coping mechanisms support decision making during the development of new business models. Furthermore, we find that the five coping strategies delineate decision making for value proposition, value creation, and value capture configurations in more detail than existing literature has described. Our findings have important implications for decision making in business model innovation.
    January 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12205   open full text
  • Technological impact of R&D grants on utility models.
    Martha L. Torres‐Barreto, Rebeca Mendez‐Duron, Felipe Hernandez‐Perlines.
    R and D Management. January 25, 2016
    We evaluate the impact of public grants on the technological output of Spanish manufacturing companies using the utility models as a measure and compare them with patents. We postulate that capabilities of the firm play a decisive moderating role in the relationship between grants and utility models. Results suggest that a firm's capability to constantly maintain an updated knowledge base has a positive influence on the abovementioned relationship. Also, firm's capabilities of planning innovation, and cooperating with partners, and its absorptive capacity are crucial in the creation of both utility models and patents.
    January 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12198   open full text
  • Business model adaptation for emerging markets: a case study of a German automobile manufacturer in India.
    Christian Landau, Amit Karna, Miriam Sailer.
    R and D Management. January 21, 2016
    Emerging markets offer a wide range of opportunities for firms from developed markets, especially in terms of high growth potential. However, business models that enable firms to achieve competitive advantage in their home markets are often challenged by the different nature of emerging markets. Firms, therefore, have to innovate and adapt their business models to better fit the specific context of these international markets. Based on a longitudinal case study of a German luxury automobile manufacturer's internationalization to India, we develop a phase model of the business model adaptation process to emerging markets. We find that firms adapt their business models in four phases: international extension, local emergence, local expansion, and local consolidation. Firms step‐wise adjust business model components along this process to develop a local emerging market business model. In each phase of the business model adaptation process, firms emphasize different components of the business model, before they enter into continuous adjustments of all business model components. Furthermore, we find that firms overall adjust some components of their business model more significantly than others. Our findings are of particular relevance to the literature on business model internationalization and the literature that points out the evolutionary, step‐wise nature of business model innovation.
    January 21, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12201   open full text
  • Measuring business model innovation: conceptualization, scale development, and proof of performance.
    Thomas Clauss.
    R and D Management. January 20, 2016
    Business model innovation is a topic that has received much attention from academia as well as from business practice. After extensive research on the definition and conceptualization of the concept and publication of many case‐based results, recently scholars have been calling for more generalizable results, large‐scale investigations and greater empirical sophistication. Despite the great importance of measuring business model innovation for various purposes, a validated measurement scale is still not available. I fill this gap by systematically developing a new scale for business model innovation. I follow a rigorous scale development approach to ensure validity and reliability. Specifically, I collected two large‐scale samples of 126 and 232 firms to specify and assess the scale. As a result, I provide a hierarchical three‐level scale for measuring business model innovation. At the first level, 41 reflective items are provided to measure ten subconstructs of business model innovation. These can be used as formative measures of three dimensions of business model innovation at the second level, namely value creation innovation, value proposition innovation and value capture innovation. At the third level, these three dimensions form the metaconstruct of business model innovation.
    January 20, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12186   open full text
  • Institutional framework, corporate ownership structure, and R&D investment: an international analysis.
    Félix J. López Iturriaga, Emilio J. López‐Millán.
    R and D Management. January 20, 2016
    We combine agency theory with the law and finance approach to analyze how the legal protection of investors and the corporate ownership structure affect corporate investment in research and development (R&D). We use information from 956 firms from the five most R&D‐intensive industries in 19 developed countries. Our results show that better protection of investors’ rights by the institutional environment has a positive influence on corporate R&D. We also find that corporate ownership concentration works as a substitute for legal protection. This finding means that R&D investment of the firms in the countries with poor legal protection increases as ownership becomes more concentrated. Our results also show that the identity of shareholders has a relevant effect: Whereas banks and nonfinancial institutions as shareholders result in lower R&D, institutional investors as shareholders increase corporate investment in R&D.
    January 20, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12204   open full text
  • Servicing academics and building relationships: the case of two university commercialisation offices in Australia.
    Jennifer Hui‐Han Gao, Nigel Haworth.
    R and D Management. January 14, 2016
    Adopting the contingency perspective, we examine the strategic orientation of university commercialisation models by conducting an explorative multiple‐case study of two university commercialisation offices (UCOs). We base our study in Australia, a relatively small, open OECD trading economy, where universities are under strong pressures to commercialise. While existing literature mainly focussed on quantitative and revenue‐based measures of university commercialisation performance, we identify two different UCO strategic models: ‘service‐provider’ and ‘relationship‐builder’. We also find university leadership, CEO ideology and academic awareness and support as key factors that shape UCO strategic models.
    January 14, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12184   open full text
  • An investigation into the roles of open innovation collaboration managers.
    Susanne Ollila, Anna Yström.
    R and D Management. January 12, 2016
    The concept of open innovation has gained traction among practitioners and academics. Many different aspects of open innovation have been researched, but the question of how to manage open innovation collaboration in order to achieve the desired knowledge flow across organizational boundaries remains only partly answered. Consequently, this article argues for the need to complement prior firm‐centric perspectives by investigating the roles of senior management in the postmodern form of organizing that characterizes open innovation collaboration. A more in‐depth understanding of managerial roles in this context can increase the chances of fruitful collaboration. Thus, the article uses an inductive, interview‐based approach to explore senior management roles in two institutionalized open innovation collaborations, thereby creating an initial conceptualization of the role of managers in open innovation and forming a basis for further studies on open innovation management. In this respect, the article identifies and discusses additional managerial roles that appear to be crucial for open innovation collaborations. These roles are those of a facilitator, tactician, and sensegiver.
    January 12, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12197   open full text
  • Why and how knowledge sharing matters for R&D engineers.
    Yu‐Qian Zhu.
    R and D Management. January 05, 2016
    This research explored how and why knowledge sharing matters for R&D engineers by investigating the effects of knowledge sharing on R&D engineer's job performance and job satisfaction. Based on multilevel data of 242 R&D engineers from 55 teams, the results showed that the relationships between knowledge sharing and R&D engineer's job performance/satisfaction were mediated through individual learning and self‐efficacy. Individual learning was a necessary step for knowledge sharing to transform into individual knowledge, which in turn enhanced individual level outcomes. At the same time, individual learning enhanced self‐efficacy, which subsequently benefited R&D engineer's job performance and job satisfaction. Finally, individual learning was found to be strongly related to individual job satisfaction.
    January 05, 2016   doi: 10.1111/radm.12188   open full text
  • Managing scientific and technical experts in R&D: beyond tensions, conflicting logics and orders of worth.
    Natalia Bobadilla, Patrick Gilbert.
    R and D Management. December 29, 2015
    Practices for managing scientific and technical experts today require a critical re‐evaluation. This paper takes a sociological perspective (convention theory) to examine the tensions and conflicts that arise in the implementation of practices for managing knowledge workers. Drawing on six case studies of knowledge‐intensive organizations and participant observation, we elucidate three different coexisting logics – technical, market and managerial – that together create tensions. We go beyond the analysis of practices in R&D to unveil the nature of those tensions and to show how and under what circumstances arrangements are made between the different logics. Our study demonstrates that knowledge‐intensive organizations have relied on reward and dual ladder systems to solve the tensions between logics. Dual ladders often fail because they are the representation of the problem rather than the solution. We argue that the way for the issue of managing knowledge workers to evolve lies in the enrichment of arrangements, the deepening of compromises and logic hybridization. We discuss the implications of these findings for R&D management practices.
    December 29, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12189   open full text
  • Structuring innovation funnels for R&D projects under uncertainty.
    Juite Wang.
    R and D Management. December 28, 2015
    An innovative R&D project that creates a great business opportunity usually involves high technological and market uncertainty. It is easy to see that developing only one solution approach in the R&D project is too risky. The selectionism or the parallel development strategy can be applied to construct an innovation funnel that increases the flexibility to hedge against the uncertainty. However, little research has been devoted to selection of which alternative solution approaches should be included for the innovation funnel. This research aims to develop a simulation‐based methodology that can help R&D managers evaluate and construct an innovation funnel containing promising alternative approaches for a novel R&D project to maximize project profit, while minimizing downside risk within an allowable loss. A new risk measure based on the concept of conditional value‐at‐risk from the finance literature is defined to evaluate the project downside risk. An example of drug development project is used to illustrate the proposed methodology. We recommend that firms should improve their capabilities on market research, concept screening, and R&D efficiency for taking full advantages of selectionism.
    December 28, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12183   open full text
  • Positioning UK research and technology organizations as outward‐facing technology‐bases.
    Jeff Readman, John Bessant, Andy Neely, David Twigg.
    R and D Management. December 28, 2015
    UK research and technology organizations (RTOs) compete globally by offering engineering, technology and innovation services. Although associated historically with specific industries, UK RTOs have expanded into nontraditional markets and sectors. This article profiles 15 UK RTOs and we suggest that UK RTOs have unique technology and innovation capabilities, which cut across industrial boundaries.
    December 28, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12192   open full text
  • Patenting strategies and characteristics of declared inventions in the long term evolution standard.
    Federico Caviggioli, Antonio De Marco, Francesco Rogo, Giuseppe Scellato.
    R and D Management. December 28, 2015
    This study provides an empirical analysis of patent declarations at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute concerning the core releases of the Long Term Evolution standard for mobile communications. The analysis of the declared Standard Essential Patents suggests that the distribution of essential inventions across firms is less concentrated than in previous mobile standard generations [Global System for Mobile communications and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System in 1991 and 1999], mainly due to the entry of new global players. We investigated the characteristics of the declared patents and their value as proxied by the number of citations received before and after the declaration. We distinguish between entrant and incumbent firms. The declared patents receive on average more citations than a control sample of nondeclared. However, such citation premium is higher for incumbent firms than entrants. Overall evidence suggests that new global players in the field are more likely to declare patents with a narrower technological scope and that have a relatively lower technological merit as captured by citations.
    December 28, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12194   open full text
  • An incubation perspective on social innovation: the London Hub – a social incubator.
    Katerina Nicolopoulou, Mine Karataş‐Özkan, Christopher Vas, Muhammad Nouman.
    R and D Management. December 17, 2015
    In the context of incubators, particularly those that are driven to achieving social objectives, this paper investigates core processes that support the development of social innovation. Social innovation, as this paper argues, is underpinned by a new form of social collaboration and engagement built upon strong forms of sharing knowledge and learning. Coupled with this is the element of social capital reinforced by entrepreneurship and leadership that promotes sustainability in the community. These factors drive innovative thinking and ways of engaging among stakeholders in order to create new forms of socio‐economic impact. Such value‐creating activity occurs in firms that operate within incubators involving a wide range of stakeholders who work through networks to co‐create and meet social challenges. Through a case study of a social incubator and an incubatee, we demonstrate the core processes that irradiate the argument on social innovation. The contribution of this paper is threefold: First, social innovation is an emerging area of research, of which there is a dearth in terms of examining the processes empirically. We address the gap in this field by demonstrating the value of social collaboration and engagement using different innovation models. Second, we establish links between social innovation and incubation using the concept of social capital. This allows us to achieve our third contribution: exemplification of a dyadic value‐based partnership and collaboration processes between an incubator and an incubatee, through activities driven by social innovation that aim to have social impact. The paper concludes with practice implications and suggests directions for future research.
    December 17, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12179   open full text
  • The management of nanotechnology: analysis of technology linkages and the regional nanotechnology competencies.
    Nazrul Islam, Sercan Ozcan.
    R and D Management. October 29, 2015
    This study maps the linkage of nanotechnologies and their clusters, identifies emerging and mature technologies and links to their application fields, and examines the profiles of the regional nanotechnology competencies. A model is proposed to assist with the analyses. The patent data were retrieved from the Thomson Innovation database, which were subsequently analysed with the Thomson Data Analyser. The results show technological linkages using the proposed linkage model, for example, the linkage between the cluster of nanotubes‐nanowires‐polymers and the cluster of nanowires‐semiconductors‐optical identifies a nanoelectronics domain. In the Techno‐Economic Network framework, the result shows that the United States maintains its position in the Science and Technology poles, revealing its strong competitiveness, while the nanotechnological competencies in Japan have lost strength significantly in recent years. Asian giants such as South Korea and China appear to be the most likely contenders for catching up with the United States. The theoretical contribution of this study is the theoretical framework that has been adapted and tested in this research. Practical contributions consist of descriptive and analytical findings based on actors' performances and the regions' competencies. The research offers a useful insight for academic and research practitioners on how an emerging field such as nanotechnology can be analysed, and a way forward for materialising science and technology policies in this field.
    October 29, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12161   open full text
  • Searching for appropriate performance measures for innovation and development projects.
    Kaisa Henttonen, Ville Ojanen, Kaisu Puumalainen.
    R and D Management. October 29, 2015
    This study contributes to the growing body of literature on innovation and R&D performance measurement, and especially the dimensions of measuring performance. Our recommendations in this paper are based on the opinions of 169 knowledgeable professionals from a company with a reputation for innovation. Our study results indicate that what the most appropriate measures of project‐level success are will depend on the form of innovation involved and the development project type. The results of the study reveal the relatively low significance of financial measures for innovation projects in general. Additionally, measurability did not seem to be a major criterion for selecting measures, as measures like level of innovativeness were selected most often. The roles of the evaluators are also likely to have some impact.
    October 29, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12178   open full text
  • R&D projects in the science sector.
    Dorota Kuchta, Barbara Gładysz, Dorota Skowron, Jan Betta.
    R and D Management. October 19, 2015
    The purpose of this research was to determine and analyse diversity in various features of R&D projects implemented in the science sector in Poland, financed mostly from public funds. More exactly, the following aspects of R&D projects implemented in the science sector in Poland were examined: the relation between the actually achieved and the initially set goal, the project management methodologies and project time management methods used, features of the project team, the relation between the plan and the actual project realisation and management difficulties encountered in practice. These aspects and their diversity were examined in the context of the whole country, of various fields of science and various research units implementing pure research (the ‘R’ area) or applied research and experimental development (the ‘D’ area). The research was conducted by means of survey methodology covering a sample of participants of R&D projects in the science sector in Poland. The results were analysed by means of statistical methods (which constitutes a clear novelty with respect to the existing literature on R&D projects) and statistically significant phenomena gave rise to several important conclusions on how R&D projects implemented in the science sector are managed and what their realisation looks like in various fields of science and various institutions, in a relatively new EU members state and a former communist country like Poland. These conclusions may be the basis for important hypotheses (which require further research) on the project management quality in the science sector in Poland and in similar countries, which is closely linked to the problem of public money allocation, its efficient spending and control. Also, practical suggestions on improvement measures in the science sector with respect to R&D projects, limited not only to countries like Poland, but of a more general nature, are formulated.
    October 19, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12158   open full text
  • Does an extrinsic reward for R&D employees enhance innovation outcomes? Evidence from a Japanese innovation survey.
    Daisuke Kanama, Kohei Nishikawa.
    R and D Management. October 06, 2015
    This paper examines the effects of extrinsic rewards for R&D employees on innovation outcomes based on evidence from a Japanese innovation survey. Theoretical and empirical studies present conflicting findings regarding the relationship between extrinsic rewards and innovation outcomes. This article seeks to shed light on the relationship between rewards and outcomes, as represented by the development of new products and services and their technological superiority and profitability. The analysis produced the following findings. First, companies that have introduced an evaluation system based on R&D performance are more likely to develop new products and services. The introduction of the evaluation system brings about success in product innovation with greater technological superiority. Second, monetary compensation has a negative impact on the development of new products and services and technological superiority. Third, these effects vary with the company size. Small‐ and medium‐sized companies achieve higher technological superiority with performance‐based evaluations. Large companies tend to adversely impact the development of new products and services and their technological superiority with monetary compensation.
    October 06, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12165   open full text
  • The role of external knowledge(s) in the introduction of product and process innovations.
    Cristiano Antonelli, Claudio Fassio.
    R and D Management. September 30, 2015
    This paper investigates the heterogeneity of the sources of external knowledge and their differentiated effects on process and product innovations respectively. The results of the empirical investigations show that the upstream vertical sources of external knowledge from suppliers exert a strong and positive role on the introduction of process innovations, whereas horizontal and downstream vertical sources stemming respectively from competitors and customers have stronger effects on the introduction of product innovations. These results support the hypothesis that the matching between sources of external knowledge and types of innovation is necessary to implement successful innovation strategies. The study suggests that the strategic decisions of R&D managers in innovation practices should take in greater consideration the availability of the differentiated sources of external knowledge in the system in which firms are embedded.
    September 30, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12159   open full text
  • Time allocations across collaborations of academic scientists and their impact on efforts to commercialize novel technologies: is more always better?
    Dirk Libaers.
    R and D Management. September 30, 2015
    We investigate how time spent in different collaborative research arrangements by academic scientists affect their propensity of involvement in the commercialization of novel, university‐originated technologies. Three common collaborative strategies used by academic scientists: (1) internal (within the research group or within the home university) research collaboration; (2) cosmopolitan research collaboration (with scientists in other US or foreign universities); or (3) university–industry research collaboration are assessed. Drawing on the concepts of cognitive and spatial distance, the empirical findings suggest that only one internal research collaboration strategy has a significant impact on the propensity of academic scientists to engage in the commercialization of novel technologies with a private firm; however, this relationship is inverse U shaped. More importantly, academic scientists adopting a university–industry collaboration strategy and spending more research time in such an arrangement have a significantly stronger propensity for being involved in technology commercialization with a private firm; however, this relationship is inverse U shaped as well. We discuss the managerial and policy implications of the findings.
    September 30, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12164   open full text
  • The determinants of the public cofinancing rate for applied R&D: an empirical assessment on agricultural projects in an Italian region.
    Roberto Esposti, Valentina Cristiana Materia.
    R and D Management. September 30, 2015
    This paper empirically analyzes how a public institution chooses the cofinancing rate in funding competitive applied agricultural research projects. The public funding institution observes some objective features of the selected projects and of the proponents. The paper puts forward some testable hypotheses about how the funding institution uses this available information to decide the cofinancing rate. An empirical model is then specified and estimated to test these hypotheses. The empirical application refers to the real case of the agricultural R&D program funded by an Italian region (Emilia‐Romagna) over years 2001–2006. Results suggest that the cofinancing rate actually responds to the observed features but this response does not always follow the formulated hypotheses.
    September 30, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12166   open full text
  • The interaction between internal R&D and different types of external knowledge sourcing: an empirical study of Chinese innovative firms.
    Yufen Chen, Wim Vanhaverbeke, Jingshu Du.
    R and D Management. September 30, 2015
    This paper investigates to what extent internal R&D efforts and different types of external knowledge sources jointly affect innovation performance of firms in emerging economies. Based on a survey about external knowledge sourcing activities of Chinese innovative firms, we categorize external knowledge sources into four groups: science‐based partners; horizontal connections; value chain partners, and technology service providers. We find that both internal R&D activities and external knowledge sourcing have a positive effect on firms' innovation performance. Strong internal R&D capabilities also increase the effect of sourcing from value chain partners and horizontal connections, but we do not find support for complementarity between internal R&D and collaborations with universities and research labs. These findings jointly suggest that the mixture of different types of external knowledge partners in combination with internal R&D capabilities is crucial in understanding the role of open innovation in emerging economies.
    September 30, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12162   open full text
  • Sustainability and scalability of university spinouts: a business model perspective.
    Ali Ziaee Bigdeli, Feng Li, Xiaohui Shi.
    R and D Management. September 25, 2015
    Most previous studies of university spinouts (USOs) have focused on what determines their formation from the perspectives of the entrepreneurs or of their parent universities. However, few studies have investigated how these entrepreneurial businesses actually grow and how their business models evolve in the process. This paper examines the evolution of USOs' business models over their different development phases. Using empirical evidence gathered from three comprehensive case studies, we explore how USOs' business models evolve over time, and the implications for the financial sustainability and operational scalability of these ventures. This paper extends existing research on the development of USOs, and highlights three themes for future research.
    September 25, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12167   open full text
  • First‐mover strategy, resource capacity alignment, and new product performance: a framework for mediation and moderation effects.
    Yung‐Chang Hsiao, Chung‐Jen Chen, Ruey‐Shan Guo, Kae‐Kuen Hu.
    R and D Management. September 19, 2015
    Based on the competence‐based perspective and contingency perspective, this study attempts to examine the relationships among first‐mover strategy, a firm's core capacity, resource allocation, and new product performance. Our findings indicate that (1) firms achieve a better new product performance when adopting first‐mover strategy and having an excellent core capacity, and (2) firms achieve a better new product performance if their core capacity (technical and managerial) fits the resource allocation they implement. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.
    September 19, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12157   open full text
  • Accessed external knowledge, centrality of intra‐team knowledge networks, and R&D employee creativity.
    Chaoying Tang.
    R and D Management. September 16, 2015
    Accessing knowledge is an important component of managing research and development (R&D) employee creativity. Although previous literature on creativity highlights the value of external diversified knowledge and the centrality of intra‐team knowledge network to creativity, the effects of accessed external knowledge characteristics on the network position of intra‐team knowledge and creativity, as well as the moderating role of accessed knowledge content reliability, have hardly been considered. This empirical study helps shed some light on this issue in the context of R&D. In particular, the mediated moderation effect of the diversity and reliability of accessed knowledge on the centrality of intra‐team knowledge network and employee creativity was analyzed. The data were gathered via questionnaires completed by R&D employees and leaders in biopharmaceutical companies in China. The results indicated that the reliability of accessed knowledge moderated the relation between the diversity of the accessed knowledge and centrality of intra‐team knowledge network. The centrality, in turn, improved employee creativity. Theoretical and practical suggestions for R&D management are discussed.
    September 16, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12160   open full text
  • Friend or foe? The effects of managerial politics on NPD team communication, collaboration and project success.
    Elias Kyriazis, Graham Massey, Paul Couchman, Lester Johnson.
    R and D Management. August 04, 2015
    Much existing work on new product development (NPD) team integration takes an economically rational perspective, specifying appropriate systems, structures and interactions. Few studies however have explored the effects of politics on working relationships between technically trained managers (TTMs; e.g., research and development managers) and marketing managers (MMs) during NPD. Our results reveal that intra‐team politics has positive and negative effects on TTM/MM communication. This is important because communication positively influences collaboration and NPD success. Moreover, the effects of communication variables on these two outcome variables differ depending on whether one is a TTM or MM.
    August 04, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12150   open full text
  • The impact of organizational culture on a firm's capability to innovate the business model.
    Marianne Hock, Thomas Clauss, Esther Schulz.
    R and D Management. August 03, 2015
    Recent literature on business model innovation tries to identify operational changes occurring within the business model components. We suggest that a significant part of the business model cannot be understood without an investigation of the underlying logic of the firm. Drawing on organizational culture literature, this study explores the idea that parts of the capabilities that enable business model innovation are determined by the firm's underlying cultural values. In this study, we utilize existing literature on organizational culture to analyze the underlying organizational values of the two main business model design themes (novelty and efficiency) and link these to the firm's capabilities that foster business model innovation. By empirically analyzing a sample of 305 companies in the engineering industry, we find that novelty‐oriented cultural values foster capabilities (strategic sensitivity, collective commitment and resource fluidity) in favor of business model innovation, while efficiency‐oriented cultural values do not show positive effects. We further find that strategic sensitivity and resource fluidity significantly enhance the propensity to business model innovation.
    August 03, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12153   open full text
  • Beyond invention: the additive impact of incubation capabilities to firm value.
    Dmitri G. Markovitch, Gina Colarelli O'Connor, Pamela J. Harper.
    R and D Management. August 03, 2015
    Incubation is a process whereby the firm nurtures breakthrough discoveries and inventions to test their potential as new business platforms. The recent emergence of organizational roles associated with innovation incubation shows that internal incubation is becoming recognized as an important organizational capability. This development also suggests that firms that invest in discovery for competitive advantage recognize a need to leverage that investment more fully. While case studies describe incubation activities and note their importance, empirical research linking this capability to firm performance is limited. The current study represents an initial attempt at exploring the relationship empirically. Our main finding is that financial markets have difficulty valuing a firm's exploratory discovery investments and that the presence of an incubation capability positively moderates the impact of such investments on firm market valuation. The implication of this result is that investments in certain types of R&D may be suboptimized if there is not a parallel investment in a capability to incubate the opportunities that arise from potentially breakthrough inventions.
    August 03, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12152   open full text
  • The impact of product piracy on corporate IP strategy.
    Theresa Veer, Florian Berger, Knut Blind.
    R and D Management. August 03, 2015
    We analyze how cases of unauthorized reproduction of a company's technology (‘product piracy’) influence the subsequent intellectual property (IP) protection strategy of around 200 German manufacturing companies. Specifically, we examine whether product piracy induces a stronger use of formal IP strategies or whether a shift to informal protection mechanisms occurs. Using propensity score matching, we compare companies with similar characteristics (e.g. prior IP strategy, business activities, industry affiliation, etc.). We find that imitation incidences induce a stronger use of formal protection rights, whereas for informal protection, we detect no significant differences between the copied companies and the control group. We are able to further distinguish this effect according to firm size and detect that it especially plays out for large firms. These insights raise the question whether large companies should reconsider their further focus on filing additional patents and take the strengths of the alternative protection mechanisms stronger into account. For small firms, our findings raise the concern of a restriction in scope of potential strategic response toward product piracy. On a policy level, the general and further pushed disadvantage for small‐ and medium‐sized companies in the patent system generally calls for a policy initiative, which addresses this problem by addressing their resource constraints.
    August 03, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12149   open full text
  • Managing dual business models in emerging markets: an ambidexterity perspective.
    Stephan Winterhalter, Marco B. Zeschky, Oliver Gassmann.
    R and D Management. August 01, 2015
    Research on dual business models has highlighted the challenge for firms when they compete with different business models in a market. Drawing from ambidexterity literature, we investigate the question of how firms integrate or separate business models at the level of value chain activities, which constitute the core operational activities within each business model. We employ a qualitative research approach based on 11 case studies of Western firms that implemented a low‐cost business model in parallel to their premium business model in emerging markets. We find that firms may become ambidextrous in their business models by means of domain separation. In doing so, firms may separate value chain activities to address different additional customer segments in emerging markets. This study contributes to the emerging topic of dual business models and provides the ground for future research on ambidexterity in a global context.
    August 01, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12151   open full text
  • Idea selection in suggestion systems: a thematic similarity perspective.
    Julia K. Froehlich, Martin Hoegl, Michael Gibbert.
    R and D Management. August 01, 2015
    The literature on the fuzzy front‐end of innovation, and in particular on suggestion systems, has focused mainly on organizational aspects and individual characteristics of submitters. We take a different approach and focus on the idea itself. To differentiate different ideas, we build on recent research in cognition that distinguishes two types of similarities: feature‐based, taxonomic similarity, and context‐based, thematic similarity. We operationalize the type of similarity in terms of idea character (‘thematicness’) and idea presentation (scenario and experiential proximity) with idea evaluation. Data were obtained from the suggestion system of the research and development department of a multinational manufacturer of consumer goods. We identify significant, positive relationships for all characteristics with idea evaluations. We discuss our findings in the context of bounded creativity approaches, derive theoretical and practical implications, and recommend avenues for future research.
    August 01, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12154   open full text
  • Open evaluation of new product concepts at the front end of innovation: objectives and contingency factors.
    Vivek K. Velamuri, Dirk Schneckenberg, Jörg B. A. Haller, Kathrin M. Moeslein.
    R and D Management. July 31, 2015
    The proliferation of innovation contests has fostered community‐based idea evaluation as an alternative to expert juries to filter and select new product concepts at the fuzzy front end of corporate R&D innovation. We refer to this phenomenon as open evaluation, as all registered participants can engage in jury activities like voting, rating, and commenting. While previous research on innovation contests and user engagement includes participant‐based evaluation, the investigative focus so far has not been on this phenomenon. Access to jury activities in open evaluation practice contradicts innovation theory, which recommends careful selection procedures to establish expert juries for assessing new product concepts. Additionally, little is known about contingency factors that influence the performance and acceptance of open evaluation's results. To address these two questions on the objectives and contingency factors for open evaluation of new product concepts, this study applies exploratory multiple‐case research of open evaluation in nine innovation contests. Data collection encompassed expert interviews and complementary sources of evidence. Results indicate that firms pursue six distinct objectives to support participant‐based generation and selection of new concepts. In addition, eight contingency factors influence the performance of open evaluation and the acceptance of its results. Finally, results showed open evaluation output to efficiently complement jury decisions in filtering and selecting ideas for new product development.
    July 31, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12155   open full text
  • Towards an attention‐based view of technology decisions.
    Maximilian Palmié, Bernhard Lingens, Oliver Gassmann.
    R and D Management. July 14, 2015
    The importance of technology decisions is widely acknowledged in both research and practice. However, we know little about how companies structure technology decisions from an organizational point of view and how attention is distributed in the course of the decision process in order to identify, process, and transfer information between the organizational units involved. Using the attention‐based view of the firm and 14 qualitative case studies, we present five approaches for organizing technology decisions: (1) centralized decision‐making, (2) busy information bee, (3) double‐blind analysis, (4) moderated expert panel, and (5) coterie approach. On this ground, this paper introduces a new, attention‐based view on technology decisions, which improves the theoretical understanding of organizations and provides guidelines for practitioners in choosing an appropriate organizational configuration in this regard.
    July 14, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12146   open full text
  • Leveraging the benefits of exploratory learning and exploitative learning in NPD: the role of innovation field orientation.
    Ci‐Rong Li, Ching‐Hsuan Yeh.
    R and D Management. June 29, 2015
    Scholars have increasingly noted that firm‐level capabilities may be crucial for resolving the dilemmas resulting from either high exploratory or high exploitative learning. However, our current understanding of this issue remains limited. Innovation field orientation is a firm‐level capability to strategically structure dispersed innovation efforts and reconfigure resources on them, and may help a firm leverage the benefits of distinctive learning strategies. Based on this idea, this paper investigates innovation field orientation and examines how its capacities (the specification, establishment of focus areas, and stimulation of synergies) influence the performance of high exploratory/exploitative learning. Our findings suggest that the capacities of innovation field orientation moderate the effects of exploratory and exploitative learning on new product program performance, and clarify how innovation field orientation enables organization to leverage the benefits of high exploratory/exploitative learning and address their disadvantages.
    June 29, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12148   open full text
  • Dynamic capabilities for service innovation: conceptualization and measurement.
    Matthijs J. Janssen, Carolina Castaldi, Alexander Alexiev.
    R and D Management. June 29, 2015
    Although the development of new services is becoming a major concern for firms throughout the entire economy, there is only little insight in the organizational antecedents of service innovation. It is widely acknowledged that engaging in R&D is relatively uncommon for service providers, but there are also indications that the R&D concept is poorly applicable to service innovation in the first place. Therefore, attention is shifting toward the actual capabilities that allow a firm to source ideas and convert them into marketable service propositions. This paper provides the operationalization of a set of dynamic service innovation capabilities (DSICs) that is general enough to be relevant across different sectoral contexts. While the selected framework is found to consolidate earlier works on the specificities of service innovation, it also captures broad insights on the evolutionary properties of the creation of novel solutions. Thereby, it exemplifies how DSICs can be conceptualized according to the so‐called synthesis approach to service innovation. We operationalize a refined version of such DSICs and develop a measurement scale, using two multi‐industry subsamples from a dataset of 391 Dutch firms. The measured capabilities are found to correlate to different extents with performance measures. Our main contribution, a validated scale for five complementary DSICs, opens the way to comparative analyses regarding firm abilities for creating innovative services.
    June 29, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12147   open full text
  • Evolving schemes of interpretation: investigating the dual role of architectures in new product development.
    Thomas Magnusson, Nicolette Lakemond.
    R and D Management. June 09, 2015
    Should product architectures be considered inputs to – or outputs from – new product development (NPD)? Whereas the mirroring hypothesis suggests the former, NPD stage models suggests the latter. Elaborating on these conflicting propositions, this paper analyses the relationships between product architectures and development processes in NPD projects. The analysis demonstrates how project managers use product architectures to interpret their tasks and devise appropriate responses to perceived challenges. Thus, architectures provide useful linkages between knowledge development and organisational change in R&D organisations.
    June 09, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12142   open full text
  • Strategies for knowledge use in R&D and their implications for innovative performance.
    Thijs Peeters, Xavier Martin.
    R and D Management. June 04, 2015
    We argue that research on R&D strategy and on the use of external knowledge in R&D in particular should differentiate between distinct uses of external knowledge. We distinguish between uses of external knowledge for replication (using knowledge as is) vs. for compounding (building on acquired knowledge by combining it together with internally developed knowledge). We theorize about the respective innovative performance implications of these two strategies and compare them with a self‐reliant strategy of internal R&D. We also elaborate contingencies for each strategy, pertaining to firm capabilities and cooperation. We test our predictions using a large sample survey of Dutch innovators in multiple industries. Our findings indicate that compounding firms perform better than replicating firms when the share of sales that consists of innovations that are new to the market is assessed, but they do not outperform firms with an internal R&D strategy. Furthermore, these differences disappear when the share of sales consisting of less novel innovations is studied. This research demonstrates the importance of distinguishing between R&D strategies that replicate vs. compound external knowledge.
    June 04, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12144   open full text
  • The impact of value‐relevant accounting rules on innovative activities.
    Hsuan‐Chu Lin, Chin‐Chen Chien, She‐Chih Chiu.
    R and D Management. May 28, 2015
    The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of value‐relevant accounting rules on corporate innovative activities. Using US data from 1972 to 2012, we find that value‐relevant accounting rules help innovative companies to reduce R&D funding gaps, which is conducive to companies' innovative activities and potential long‐term benefits. However, a higher risk premium is required by shareholders of innovative companies. Additionally, we find not only that R&D spending is more sensitive to future earnings variability as compared to that occurring commercial intellectual properties and physical assets, but we also find that managers contracted with long‐term compensation plans have greater incentives to engage in innovative activities when value‐relevant accounting rules set in. Overall, we provide evidence on alleviation of information asymmetry between innovative companies and their lenders when accounting information is more value relevant.
    May 28, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12143   open full text
  • How do slack resources affect the relationship between R&D expenditures and firm performance?
    Chia‐Ling Lee, Hsu‐Che Wu.
    R and D Management. May 22, 2015
    Research and development (R&D) investment affects future operating earnings. Behavioral theory claims that slack resources benefit innovation, whereas agency theory argues that they represent a form of inefficiency and inhibit innovation. This paper thus examines how slack resources affect the relationship between R&D investments and firm performance based on two dimensions of R&D: R&D capital and R&D expenses. R&D capital captures long‐term R&D investment, whereas R&D expenses represent R&D investment in the current year. This study is undertaken in Taiwan using a large 5‐year dataset within high‐tech industries. Slack resources are broadly classified into absorbed slack with low managerial discretion and unabsorbed slack with high managerial discretion. We find that absorbed slack negatively affects the relationship between R&D investments and performance, as proposed by agency theory. We further find that unabsorbed slack has a slightly curvilinear effect on the positive relationship between R&D capital and firm performance. The proposal of behavioral theory thus is more valid when focusing on unabsorbed slack resources. Our findings suggest that it is necessary to identify the types of slack and R&D investments that are being considered when discussing the impacts of R&D investment on performance.
    May 22, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12141   open full text
  • New product development resource forecasting.
    Abigail Hird, Kepa Mendibil, Alex Duffy, Robert Ian Whitfield.
    R and D Management. May 12, 2015
    Forecasting resource requirements for new product development (NPD) projects is essential for both strategic and tactical planning. Sophisticated, elegant planning tools to present data and inform decision‐making do exist. However, in NPD, such tools run on unreliable, estimation‐based resource information derived through undefined processes. This paper establishes that existing methods do not provide transparent, consistent, timely or accurate resource planning information, highlighting the need for a new approach to resource forecasting, specifically in the field of NPD. The gap between the practical issues and available methods highlights the possibility of developing a novel design of experiments approach to create resource forecasting models.
    May 12, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12140   open full text
  • Standard essential patents to boost financial returns.
    Tim Pohlmann, Peter Neuhäusler, Knut Blind.
    R and D Management. May 06, 2015
    Numerous innovative applications build upon standardized technologies. These technologies increasingly incorporate standard essential patents (SEPs). It is crucial to own SEPs in order to achieve and maintain significant market shares. We test the influence of owning SEPs on a firm's financial performance. In our analysis, we use a unique dataset of firms participating in international standard setting organizations (SSOs). Our results indicate a curvilinear (inverse U‐shaped) relationship of owning SEPs on a firm's return on assets. The curvilinear relationship suggests that firms should balance their patent portfolio by holding a share of patents, which are essential for standards, and by holding a share of patents on technologies that are not standardized. Our results further show that the effects of owning SEPs depend on the specific SSO as well as on the size of the patent portfolio. Our findings are a first step toward identifying and assessing the financial impact of patents essential to standards. Our empirical tests suggest that companies should pursue a common strategy for patenting and standardization to exploit patented inventions in technology fields where standards matter.
    May 06, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12137   open full text
  • How diversity contributes to academic research teams performance.
    Petra De Saá‐Pérez, Nieves L. Díaz‐Díaz, Inmaculada Aguiar‐Díaz, José Luis Ballesteros‐Rodríguez.
    R and D Management. May 01, 2015
    The objective of this paper is to analyse how the job‐related diversity in academic research teams influences their scientific performance. To achieve that objective, an empirical study of a university's research teams was carried out during the years 2006–2009. The results reflect a non‐significant effect of functional diversity on research teams' performance, whereas status diversity affects in a positive and significant way. However, educational diversity has a significant negative impact when a certain threshold is exceeded. The effect of institutional diversity presents an inverted U‐shaped relation with the number of published articles by the research teams. The results reveal that the relationship between diversity and research performance may not be a simple and direct one because its effect could depend on the organisational context and the type of diversity attributes.
    May 01, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12139   open full text
  • In search for the not‐invented‐here syndrome: the role of knowledge sources and firm success.
    Katrin Hussinger, Annelies Wastyn.
    R and D Management. April 08, 2015
    The not‐invented‐here (NIH) syndrome refers to a negative attitude of employees against externally developed knowledge. We show that the sources of external knowledge and the success of the company that acquires knowledge externally are factors that impact the occurrence of the NIH syndrome. In line with social identity theory, we hypothesize that internal resistance is most likely to occur if knowledge is acquired from similar organizations. This hypothesis is supported by our empirical finding that internal resistance against external knowledge is more likely to occur when knowledge is acquired from competitors rather than from suppliers, customers, or universities. Further, we show that the NIH syndrome is more likely to arise within successful companies that acquire knowledge from competitors. This is in line with our hypothesis that firm success increases the extent to which employees identify themselves with their company, resulting in stronger in‐group favoritism and a superior tendency to reject externally generated knowledge.
    April 08, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12136   open full text
  • Advances in the competitiveness of pan‐European rail freight services: findings from a case study.
    Dewan Md Zahurul Islam, Olav Eidhammer.
    R and D Management. March 18, 2015
    The European rail freight market is ostensibly a free market where, from 1 January 2007, both incumbent and new‐entrant operators are able to compete on every line and in every European Union country. The main objective of this research paper is to assess the advances in the competitiveness of the pan‐European rail freight services operated by a new‐entrant (private) operator. Its main focus is to assess and contribute to the understanding of the advances towards competitiveness and the future prospects in the open European rail freight market, including dealing with challenges (e.g. dormant and departure of partners, suspension of the project, indistinct roles and responsibilities of operating partners) at different phases of the research, development and service offerings, that will be an important contribution to the Research and Development (R&D) policy and management arena in the Europe rail freight transport sector. The current research applies a case study research approach. The assessment of the rail freight service is performed by conducting two phases: first, a comparison of the progress between first and second year of the REorganisation of Transport networks by advanced RAil freight Concepts (RETRACK) rail freight service, operated by a new entrant and conducted on the corridor between two hubs – Cologne, Germany, and Györ, Hungary, and secondly a comparison of the opinions of customers on the RETRACK service and its competitors. From the comparative study between the first and second years, the study finds that the new‐entrant operator was able to offer an increased number of services by consolidating cargo from satellite connections at both ends of the operational corridor by adopting a pragmatic and flexible approach. The customer satisfaction survey suggests that the new‐entrant operator offered better service in terms of price, transit time, reliability and information flow/management compared to its competitors' services (offered by incumbent rail operators) on the corridor. However, their service was inferior to that of its competitors, in terms of frequency and availability of service. These less‐well performed service factors have improved gradually over time. The study suggests that intra‐rail competition has improved, but that inter‐modal completion is yet to be achieved. The ups and downs of the project provide important lessons for R&D management, academia and policy makers. The study suggests that a pan‐European rail freight service can be efficiently and effectively run by new‐entrant operators, and this will lead to more intra‐modal competition. However, they have yet to achieve competitiveness that will result in a shift of cargo from road to rail by offering an improved service that at least matches the major attributes of road freight service, e.g. price, transit time, door‐to‐door service and working in a collaborative way with other actors.
    March 18, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12135   open full text
  • Innovation audits by means of formulating problems.
    Joakim Björkdahl, Magnus Holmén.
    R and D Management. March 14, 2015
    Prior innovation audits consist of scorecards that firms use to assess their innovation processes and capabilities. The multifaceted nature of innovation means that this approach does not contextualize the audit for the audited firms. This paper proposes an innovation audit method that identifies and formulates valuable innovation‐related problems. It comprises four sequentially dependent modules which follow a structured process that allows the firm's innovation processes and capabilities to be audited. The audit was developed based on performing innovation audits with five multinational companies in the manufacturing and hygiene sectors, and nine pulp and paper companies. The paper discusses the pros and cons of different innovation audits. We suggest that the innovation audit process may be a means for changing a firm's strategic innovation orientation, and contribute to the development of innovation capabilities.
    March 14, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12133   open full text
  • The effects of knowledge interaction for business innovation.
    Shari S. C. Shang, Chen‐Yen Yao, Da‐Ming Liou.
    R and D Management. March 09, 2015
    The objective of this paper is to examine the effects of knowledge interaction on different types of business innovation. We first identified three indicators that reflect on the quality of the interaction between customers and technological knowledge, and then classified business innovations as product innovation, problem‐solving innovation, or general innovation capability. Hypotheses about the impact of different qualities of knowledge interaction on business innovations were tested by collecting data from 178 high‐technology firms in Taiwan. The results revealed that product innovation requires both wide‐ranging and deep interaction between customers and technological knowledge, that problem‐solving innovation requires either wide‐ranging or deeper interaction between customers and technological knowledge, and that wide‐ranging knowledge interaction is the most important driver for building general innovation capability. The research results enhance our understanding of knowledge interaction, with a special focus on the content and quality of the knowledge interactions within an enterprise. It also helps business managers in allocating resources and facilitating interorganizational communications for different situations related to innovation.
    March 09, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12130   open full text
  • Intellectual property protection mechanisms in collaborative new product development.
    Raffaella Manzini, Valentina Lazzarotti.
    R and D Management. February 27, 2015
    Intellectual property (IP) is widely recognized to be a critical issue for implementing open innovation and collaborative research in new product development (NPD). Several intellectual property protection mechanisms (IPPMs) can be employed by companies to protect their critical technology and know‐how (patents, designs, trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights). However, how they should be used in the different phases of collaborative NPD processes is still debatable, and few empirical studies regarding the issue are available at the moment. This paper, which is based upon the case of an Italian NPD service company named MR&D, focuses on one main question: how can companies protect ideas, technology, and know‐how in collaborations concerning different phases of the NPD process? It proposes an initial tentative framework to answer this question by way of an analysis of pertaining literature and a case study.
    February 27, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12126   open full text
  • Infringement of intellectual property in innovation partnerships.
    Torben Schubert.
    R and D Management. February 17, 2015
    Using data from the German Community Innovation Survey (CIS) from 2008, we analyze whether innovation partnering increases the risk of experiencing infringement of intellectual property (IP). The results show that depending on types of IP innovation, partnerships increase the risk of infringement by up to 37% compared with the average risk in the sample. The results suggest that this massive increase can be reduced by IP rights and contracts to govern the partnerships. Yet, we show that formal protection mechanisms do not eliminate the sources of opportunistic infringement, because that infringement in innovation partnerships more commonly relates to the infringement of formally unprotected IP, such as tacit knowledge and know‐how.
    February 17, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12128   open full text
  • University patenting and technology commercialization – legal frameworks and the importance of local practice.
    Dagmara M. Weckowska, Jordi Molas‐Gallart, Puay Tang, David Twigg, Elena Castro‐Martínez, Izabela Kijeńska‐Dąbrowska, Dirk Libaers, Koenraad Debackere, Martin Meyer.
    R and D Management. February 11, 2015
    The impact of national legislative frameworks on the higher education sector's contribution to technological innovation is heavily disputed. This paper argues that legislative frameworks may stimulate the development of local practices for the management and exploitation of intellectual property (IP), which in turn determine the level of academic patenting. We present case studies of two comparable universities in each of four selected European countries with different histories of national IP legislation. A within‐country analysis shows that a wider range and earlier development of local IP management and exploitation practices are accompanied by higher levels of academic patenting, and that increasing similarity of IP practices is associated with decreasing differences in patenting outputs. A preliminary cross‐country analysis reveals an expansion in and increasing similarity of practices for IP management and exploitation in countries with different national IP framework histories. We conclude that adopting Bayh‐Dole‐like legislation may trigger the development of local IP practices, which stimulate patenting. However, it is not always sufficient and definitely not always necessary. The study concludes with some policy recommendations.
    February 11, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12123   open full text
  • The impact of technological convergence on firms' product portfolio strategy: an information‐based imitation approach.
    Claudio Giachetti, Giovanni Battista Dagnino.
    R and D Management. January 29, 2015
    Technological convergence in the electronics industry has enabled disparate new functionalities to be added to existing basic products. Although the main drivers of technological convergence have been examined by the technological change literature, the impact of technological convergence on firms' product portfolio strategies remains a largely unexplored issue. Drawing on the technological change and information‐based imitation literatures, we develop hypotheses on how the introduction in the market of technologies from other product categories affects the way firms modify their product portfolio vis‐à‐vis the market leader. Data on nearly 300 imitation strategies at the product portfolio level, which cover over 3,500 handset models introduced by 55 mobile phone vendors from 1994 to 2010, show that the relationship between the level of technological convergence in a product category and the firms' level of imitation of the market leader product portfolio strategy is U‐shaped. Data also show that the firm's prior experience plays an important role in moderating this curvilinear relationship.
    January 29, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12116   open full text
  • Empowering leadership in R&D teams: a closer look at its components, process, and outcomes.
    Yu‐Qian Zhu, Houn‐Gee Chen.
    R and D Management. January 29, 2015
    Empowering leadership in R&D teams has gained increasing popularity as it provides a balance between autonomy and control, encourages member participation and self‐leadership, and benefits creativity and innovation. This research examined the unique influences of two behavior components of empowering leadership: group‐focused empowering leadership and differentiated individual‐focused empowering leadership on R&D team's processes and team effectiveness. Using data from 54 R&D teams, we found that group‐focused empowering leadership is strongly related to intra‐team collaboration, which in turn is positively related to both team innovativeness and performance. Differentiated individual‐focused empowering leadership, however, is positively related to intra‐team competition.
    January 29, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12114   open full text
  • Analysing the stakes of stakeholders in research and development project management: a systems approach.
    Arun Abraham Elias.
    R and D Management. January 28, 2015
    Research and development (R&D) project management involves managing multiple stakeholders with conflicting stakes. This article proposes a systems approach to capture such conflicting stakes of multiple stakeholders in controversial R&D projects. The approach is illustrated using a New Zealand case study related to the use of 1080 chemical for pest management. Initially, the problem situation was structured systemically by analysing the behaviour of the main variables and by conducting a stakeholder analysis. Further, a participative systems model related to the problem situation was developed using a group model‐building process. The analysis of the model revealed a set of feedback loops operating in the system identified as constituting and responsible for the complexity of the problem situation relating to 1080 use. In conclusion, the paper highlights some strategies suggested by the stakeholders to manage conflict.
    January 28, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12122   open full text
  • Generating new service ideas: the use of hybrid innovation tools to reflect functional heterogeneity of services.
    Youngjung Geum, Eunji Noh, Yongtae Park.
    R and D Management. January 27, 2015
    In many cases, new services are developed based on incremental innovation. Thus, how to identify functional characteristics and how to differentiate new service development are two critical questions. However, previous research has ignored the functional heterogeneity of service when using innovation tools for new service development. In response, we suggest a hybrid approach to differentiating the method of generating new service ideas. A Kano model is first employed to identify whether functional characteristics are core or peripheral, after which different methods are applied for each function. For core functions, a case‐based reasoning approach is used, which focuses on identifying similarity; for peripheral functions, we suggest instead a modified zigzagging approach to identify creative functions. To present the working of proposed approach, we conducted a case study using Appstore application, IreaditNow, and show how to generate alternatives for both core services and peripheral services.
    January 27, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12118   open full text
  • Classification of R&D projects and selection of R&D project management concept.
    Dorota Kuchta, Dorota Skowron.
    R and D Management. January 23, 2015
    Currently, the dispersion and variety of both research and development (R&D) project management methods and their taxonomies pose difficulties in the selection of a management concept suitable for a particular type of R&D project. The paper attempts to assign a specified management concept to a given R&D project type. An in‐depth analysis of the literature was done, and dispersed information on the R&D project management were systemised and linked. More detailed classifications of R&D projects and agile project management (APM) methods were proposed. The paper as a result presents a new typology of R&D projects and a proposal of assignment of project management methods to individual types of R&D projects. Moreover, a case study of an R&D project is presented with outlining the major problems concerning its implementation, resulting, inter alia, from the selection of an inappropriate management concept made at the stage of project planning and application for funding. The authors also carried out an empirical research aimed at the confirmation of conclusions drawn from the relevant literature and the investigated case study. The main result of the paper is the assignment of different project management concepts to certain R&D project types as well as the distinction of two types of APM concepts. The final conclusion of the article is that most types of R&D projects, identified using the criterion of the degree of knowledge of their goals and methods of their implementation, should be managed by a customised concept of APM. It is, however, essential that one matches different types of Agile methods with different types of R&D project.
    January 23, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12112   open full text
  • Complementarity of internal and external R&D: is there a difference between product versus process innovations?
    Anna Krzeminska, Christine Eckert.
    R and D Management. January 23, 2015
    Previous research on complementarity of research and development (R&D) has generated inconsistent results and focused predominantly on product innovations, neglecting process innovations. Although process innovations are important for firm efficiency, growth, and performance, little is known about complementarity of internal and external R&D activities in process innovations. Because of the different characteristics of knowledge involved in product versus process innovations, firms should benefit less from complementing internal with external R&D for process innovations than product innovations in terms of knowledge creation but should at the same time be less prone to the risks of unwanted knowledge transfer. Our empirical analysis of cross‐sectional firm‐level data of the German manufacturing sector from 2001, 2005, and 2009 comprises a direct complementarity test for product versus process innovations. The results confirm previous evidence for significant complementarities between internal and external R&D for product innovations but find limited existence of complementarity for process innovations. As implication for R&D management, our study highlights the differences between process and product innovations and how they translate into differences in complementarity of internal and external R&D activities.
    January 23, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12120   open full text
  • Business model innovation and strategy making nexus: evidence from a cross‐industry mixed‐methods study.
    Marcelo Nogueira Cortimiglia, Antonio Ghezzi, Alejandro Germán Frank.
    R and D Management. January 17, 2015
    Theory discussing how to define and frame the relationship between the strategy making process (SMP) and business model innovation (BMI) is still incipient in the academic literature. Thus, this study aims at investigating the relationship between SMP and BMI by addressing (1) when firms engage in BMI within the overall SMP, and (2) how firms design a new business model (BM) or improve their current BM within the overall SMP. The research questions are tackled by means of a mixed‐method research, combining (1) a quantitative survey on 138 firms involved in SMP and BMI (to understand when BM design and improvement occur) and (2) a qualitative multiple‐case study focused on four firms (to address how BM design and improvement evolve). The findings empirically validate the arguments that BM design and improvement are more likely to be positioned in the strategic alternatives implementation step of the SMP, and BM is related to strategy execution; on top of this, light is shed on the inherent dynamics of the BMI process for different types of BMI.
    January 17, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12113   open full text
  • Technology trajectory mapping using data envelopment analysis: the ex ante use of disruptive innovation theory on flat panel technologies.
    Dong‐Joon Lim, Timothy R. Anderson.
    R and D Management. January 16, 2015
    In this paper, we propose a technology trajectory mapping approach using data envelopment analysis (DEA) that can scrutinize technology progress patterns from multidimensional perspectives. Literature reviews on technology trajectory mappings have revealed that it is imperative to identify key performance measures that can represent different value propositions and then apply them to the investigation of technology systems in order to capture indications of the future disruption. The proposed approach provides a flexibility not only to take multiple characteristics of technology systems into account, but also to deal with various trade‐offs among technology attributes by imposing weight restrictions in the DEA model. The application of this approach to the flat panel technologies is provided to give a strategic insight for the players involved.
    January 16, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12111   open full text
  • Knowledge management practices and absorptive capacity in small and medium‐sized enterprises: is there really a linkage?
    Luís Valentim, João Veríssimo Lisboa, Mário Franco.
    R and D Management. January 09, 2015
    Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are more vulnerable to globalization and rapid technological change due to their scarcity of resources. SMEs' absorptive capacity allows them to access knowledge and plays a key role in their ability to explore and exploit opportunities in their environment. Therefore, this study aims to identify and categorize knowledge management practices which SMEs can adopt to develop absorptive capacity. From a population of 4,534 Portuguese SMEs, 260 usable completed questionnaires were returned. We concluded that Portuguese SMEs are engaged in knowledge management practices, through collaboration with business partners, favoring learning processes based on experience, knowledge transfer to employees and knowledge absorption by employees, reflecting the importance given by SMEs to the tacit nature of knowledge which helps them in efficiency improvements, strategic adaptation, and the launch of new products and services. Our study contributes to advancing theory in the fields of knowledge management and absorptive capacity. We combine and extend previous research which allows us to reconcile the sometimes contradictory findings concerning knowledge management practices which SMEs can adopt to reinforce absorptive capacity. Some theoretical and practical implications are also presented.
    January 09, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12108   open full text
  • Rethinking the ‘mirroring’ hypothesis: implications for technological modularity, tacit coordination, and radical innovation.
    Bin Hao, Yanan Feng, Vincent Frigant.
    R and D Management. January 09, 2015
    Studies of the ‘mirroring’ hypothesis have demonstrated the relationships between technological modularity and explicit coordination, yet little is known about the ‘mirroring’ relationship between technological modularity and tacit coordination, and how the ‘mirroring’ relationship may affect radical innovation. This paper contributes to the ‘mirroring’ hypothesis by identifying the interaction mechanisms embedded in and surrounded over the mirroring relationships. Using survey data of 121 high‐tech firms in China, our study indicates that technological modularity enhances interfirm tacit coordination between module‐makers (‘mirroring’ hypothesis), and will also positively influence radical innovation (‘outcome’ hypothesis). Moreover, tacit coordination negatively moderates the impact of technological modularity on radical innovation (‘interaction’ hypothesis), indicating that the ‘mirroring’ relationship may offset the benefit obtained from modularization. It also suggests that, in a high‐technology industry in underdeveloped areas, tacit coordination could lead to exposure of hidden knowledge, thus lowering module‐makers' motivation for technology breakthrough.
    January 09, 2015   doi: 10.1111/radm.12106   open full text
  • Business model innovation and owner–managers: the moderating role of competition.
    Chander Velu, Arun Jacob.
    R and D Management. October 28, 2014
    This study examines the relationship among owner–managers, business model innovation, and competition. We present a newly constructed dataset of 111 new firms that launched electronic trading platforms (business model innovations) in the US and European bond markets between 1995 and 2004. We contribute to the emerging literature on business model innovation by integrating effectuation theory with the Austrian school's view of competition as a discovery process to examine the role of the entrepreneur in business model design. Our findings reveal that the presence of entrepreneurs as owner–managers positively influences the degree of innovation: this relationship is stronger in less competitive environments but is weaker (and may even reverse) in highly competitive environments. We discuss implications for theory and for entrepreneurs in influencing the degree of business model innovation, and suggest future directions for research.
    October 28, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12095   open full text
  • A new look at the corporate capability of personalized medicine development in the pharmaceutical industry.
    Mei Haruya, Shingo Kano.
    R and D Management. May 27, 2014
    Despite the recent rise in academic and practitioner interest in the development of personalized medicine in the pharmaceutical industry, no study has yet assessed the corporate capability of such development. This study thus develops a model to illustrate the corporate capability of personalized medicine development (PMD capability) in the pharmaceutical industry. First, we define three key influencing factors for PMD capability, namely new product development (NPD) capability, External drug–CoDx co‐development (CoDxD) capability [i.e. the capability of drug–CoDx (companion diagnostics) co‐development with external companies], and Internal CoDxD capability (i.e. the capability of drug–CoDx co‐development with an internal organization). Then, a research model is developed, and by carrying out a structural equation modeling analysis, we successfully find a good fit of the model and that the critical path to contribute to PMD capability runs from NPD capability via External CoDxD capability rather than via Internal CoDxD capability.
    May 27, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12072   open full text
  • The relationship between organisational orientation and research and development/technology commercialisation performance.
    Wawan Dhewanto, Amrik S. Sohal.
    R and D Management. May 27, 2014
    This paper explores organisational orientations related to research and development/technology commercialisation and their influence on technology commercialisation performance. A number of hypotheses are tested using structural equation modelling using data collected through a quantitative survey. The hypothesis that customer orientation and innovation orientation are related to technology commercialisation capability and the hypothesis that technology commercialisation capability is related to technology commercialisation performance are accepted, while the hypothesis that competitor orientation is related to technology commercialisation capability is not supported. From a theoretical perspective, the research contributes to a broader application of the resource‐based view in technology commercialisation research area, through exploring intangible resources (organisational orientations) and capability (technology commercialisation capability) that relate to technology commercialisation performance. From a practical perspective, in order to improve technology commercialisation performance, managers should monitor the speed of each commercialisation step: initiate the development of products (research); develop products (development); and launch the products to the market, so that the product arrives on the market in an appropriate time. Managers should also consider matching product customisation and market segment so that appropriate products are delivered to appropriate market segments. In addition, managers should monitor technology developments in the related industry, select appropriate technologies, acquire the technologies and integrate the technologies into their products, so that the improved product performs better than the previous product and competitors’ product.
    May 27, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12073   open full text
  • Toward a better comprehension of Lean metrics for research and product development management.
    Janaina Mascarenhas Hornos da Costa, Josef Oehmen, Eric Rebentisch, Deborah Nightingale.
    R and D Management. May 27, 2014
    This paper presents a compilation and empirical survey‐based evaluation of the metrics most commonly used by program managers during product development management. This work is part of a bigger project of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Project Management Institute (PMI) and International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). Three methodological procedures were applied: systematic literature review, focus‐group discussions, and survey. The survey results indicate the metrics considered to be the most and least useful for managing lean engineering programs, and reveals a shift of interest towards qualitative metrics, especially the ones that address the achievement of stakeholder values, and the absence of useful metrics regarding the lean principles People and Pull.
    May 27, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12074   open full text
  • Business model renewal and ambidexterity: structural alteration and strategy formation process during transition to a Cloud business model.
    Saeed Khanagha, Henk Volberda, Ilan Oshri.
    R and D Management. May 20, 2014
    This paper presents the findings of a longitudinal study of a large corporation's transition to a new business model in the face of a major transformation in the ICT industry brought about by Cloud computing. We build theory on the process of business model innovation through a qualitative study that investigates how an established firm organizes for an emerging business model. Contrary to previous findings that presented spatial separation as the optimal structural approach for dealing with two competing business models, our findings indicate a need for recursive iterations between different modes of separated and integrated structures in line with the emergent nature of strategic intent toward the new business models. Our analyses reveal strategy formation to be a collective experimental learning process revolving around a number of alternative strategic intentions ranging from incremental evolution and transformation to complete replacement of the existing business model. Given the fundamental differences in the nature and requirements of those alternative intents, iterations between different structural modes and differing combinations proved to be crucial in enabling the organization to make transition to the new business model.
    May 20, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12070   open full text
  • An exploration of business model development in the commercialization of technology innovations.
    Viatcheslav Dmitriev, Geoff Simmons, Yann Truong, Mark Palmer, Dirk Schneckenberg.
    R and D Management. May 20, 2014
    Research on business model development has focused on the relationships between elements of value conceptualization and organization having a linear sequence in which business models are first designed and then implemented. Another stream of research points to business model development with these elements interacting in a cyclical manner. There is a need to improve our understanding of the connective mechanisms and dynamics involved in business model development, particularly from the challenging perspective of commercializing innovations. The aim of this paper was to explore business model development during the commercialization of innovations through a case‐based qualitative study. This study found from four case studies that specific elements of business model development, representative of the conceptualization of value and organizing for value creation, integrate in a dynamic and cyclical process in the commercialization of technology innovations. The study provides empirical evidence that adds new insights to literature on sequential and more interactive processes of business model development. It also contributes to literature on business model development and particularly how it relates to the commercialization of innovations.
    May 20, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12066   open full text
  • The fit between technological innovation and business model design for firm growth: evidence from China.
    Zelong Wei, Dong Yang, Biao Sun, Meng Gu.
    R and D Management. May 20, 2014
    How does technological innovation fit with business model design to jointly impact firm growth? Given the increasingly salient role of business model, extant literature provides little answer to this question. This study builds a theoretical model based on technological innovation literature, business ecosystem theory, and business model literature to investigate this issue. This study finds that exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation fit with different business model designs to promote firm growth. Six hypotheses are proposed and examined by a database from 176 Chinese firms. This research finds that exploitative innovation has a negative whereas exploratory innovation has a positive effect on firm growth. More importantly, we find that efficiency‐centered business model design enhances the negative effect of exploitative innovation and weakens the positive effect of exploratory innovation. We also find that novelty‐centered business model design weakens the negative effect of exploitative innovation. This research contributes to both technological innovation and business model design literature.
    May 20, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12069   open full text
  • The changing university business model: a stakeholder perspective.
    Kristel Miller, Maura McAdam, Rodney McAdam.
    R and D Management. May 20, 2014
    Universities are in a current state of transition, whereby they are expected to develop a wide range of relationships with stakeholders in order to enhance regional innovation systems. However, despite external environmental pressures commonly regarded as one of the main drivers of business model evolution, there is a lack of studies that explore business model innovation as a result of multiple stakeholder influences. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to examine the changing university business model within a region of the United Kingdom, using a stakeholder perspective that will aid theoretical development and refinement in both the business model and stakeholder fields. This examination is aided by consideration of the university business model as an activity system. Repeat interviews, combined with stakeholder theory, have been used to show how the changing university business model–stakeholder relationship has progressed through different stakeholder stages with resultant changes in content, structure and governance. Furthermore, conflicting objectives between each of the stakeholder groups (i.e. academics, industry liaison staff, technology transfer office staff and government support agency representatives) have led to the university business model evolving not as a process of co‐creation but rather in a series of transitions whereby multiple stakeholders are continually shaping the university business model through strategies that are dependent upon their salience. Finally, this paper contributes to the development and refinement of business model innovation research, in that the use of stakeholder constructs can illustrate the impact of multiple stakeholders' power and influence on business model innovation.
    May 20, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12064   open full text
  • Creating and capturing value from external knowledge: the moderating role of knowledge intensity.
    Stefano Denicolai, Matias Ramirez, Joe Tidd.
    R and D Management. May 20, 2014
    Business model innovation (BMI) often involves the acquisition of external resources, their integration with and adaptation to internal capabilities and the exploitation of these novel combinations to create and capture value in new ways. However, studies focusing on the relationships among capabilities, BMI and firm performance are rare. In this paper, we adopt broader measures of internal and external knowledge, which include codified intangibles such as patents and copyrights, and examine the effects the combinations and interactions have on sales growth based on a dataset of 310 firms from four European countries. Using the broader measure of knowledge, we find support for the curvilinear relationship reported in studies using research and development‐intensity as a proxy. However, we also find that firms with low levels of internal knowledge benefit most from an ‘optimal’ investment in externally generated knowledge, but the influence on sales growth is very sensitive to the degree of external knowledge acquired. By contrast, knowledge‐intensive firms are relatively freer in defining their knowledge sourcing strategy. We discuss the implications for exploiting knowledge and complementary assets in BMI.
    May 20, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12065   open full text
  • Localization and overseas R&D activity: the case of Taiwanese multinational enterprises in China.
    Chih‐Hai Yang, Kazunobu Hayakawa.
    R and D Management. April 17, 2014
    This study investigates the determinants of overseas research and development (R&D) and the influences of various aspects of localization on affiliates' R&D intensity. Using a dataset of Taiwanese multinational enterprises (MNEs) in China, the empirical estimations find that MNEs with a larger firm size, more R&D expenditure, and a higher outward foreign direct investments intensity tend to undertake R&D. Host regions' characteristics, particularly market size and R&D resources, do matter for attracting MNEs to conduct R&D locally. Crucially, affiliates' R&D intensity is related to the degree of localization. The degree of market localization and localization of the R&D network has a positive association with affiliates' R&D intensity. From the perspective of R&D policy, a country with healthy R&D infrastructures helps attract the establishment of R&D labs of MNEs.
    April 17, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12059   open full text
  • Communities and managerial competencies supporting SMEs innovation networking: a longitudinal case study.
    Caterina Muzzi, Sergio Albertini.
    R and D Management. April 17, 2014
    Over the last few decades, the need for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to rely on networking to get access to innovation and larger knowledge bases has become evident. This paper analyzes the birth and evolution of an Italian innovation community created by a group of SMEs searching for innovation. Coming from quite different fields, these SMEs converged around a challenging project in the field of biomedical and rehabilitation devices. The aim of the paper is twofold: (1) to investigate what type of competences and tasks have to be accomplished to effectively manage an innovation community (IC) and what managerial roles (promotors) emerge by crossing competences and tasks; and (2) to what extent community members' absorptive capacity (ACAP) influences their ability to acquire and exploit innovation generated by the community. Using an in‐depth longitudinal case study analysis, we identified three different stages in community evolution. We also studied which promotors' roles that emerged in each stage and determined their relationship both between each other and to community performance. Furthermore, we investigated to what extent an existing knowledge base in a specific domain and previous experiences in networking influenced community members' ability to exploit innovation. We found that a specific correspondence among competences and tasks is needed to guarantee community performance and that promotors should interact among themselves to enable the community to reach its goal. Concerning ACAP, we found that prior experience and familiarity in networking are not predictive of new knowledge exploitation.
    April 17, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12060   open full text
  • The work motivation of research scientists and its effect on research performance.
    James C. Ryan.
    R and D Management. April 17, 2014
    This research examines the work motivation profile of research scientists and the effect of work motivation on research performance. A sample of United Kingdom‐based research scientists (N = 405) working in the chemical, biological and biomedical research domains took part in the study. Participants completed a survey based measure of motivational sources and self‐report research performance evaluation. The motivational sources of internal self‐concept motivation and instrumental motivation were found to be the strongest and weakest respectively for research scientists. External self‐concept motivation was found to be significantly higher among younger scientists. No gender differences were found in the motivational profile of scientists. While controlling for the influences of age and gender, internal self‐concept motivation was found to have a significant positive effect on research performance, and instrumental motivation was found to have a significant negative effect on research performance. Consistent with prior research, differences in research performance across age and gender were also identified. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the effective management of scientific research are discussed.
    April 17, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12063   open full text
  • Understanding commercialization of technological innovation: taking stock and moving forward.
    Avimanyu Datta, Debmalya Mukherjee, Len Jessup.
    R and D Management. April 17, 2014
    The commercialization of technological innovation, which is key to entrepreneurial success, represents a combination of several entrepreneurial activities. Building on research in management, strategy, entrepreneurship, and economics, this research summarizes 194 articles from 62 journals, categorizing them into six broad entrepreneurial activity themes: sources of innovations, types of innovation, market entry competence and feasibility, protection, development, and deployment. This review and synthesis suggest a framework of commercialization and an agenda for future research along with recommendations and guidance for future research. The proposed agenda provides topics and research questions for research, as well as related recommendations regarding the study and practice of the commercialization of innovation.
    April 17, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12068   open full text
  • Cross‐cutting organizational and demographic divides and the performance of research and development teams: two wrongs can make a right.
    Anja Iseke, Birgit Kocks, Martin R. Schneider, Conrad Schulze‐Bentrop.
    R and D Management. April 03, 2014
    In interorganizational research and development (R&D) teams, diverse skills and insights may be combined productively, but the team members' differing organizational backgrounds may also inhibit team performance. In this paper, it is argued that interorganizational R&D teams are more likely to perform with a certain demographic composition. In particular, the problems of an organizational divide can be overcome by a second, demographic divide that cuts across organizational boundaries. With a cross‐cutting demographic divide – or faultline – interorganizational R&D teams may perform; without it, they tend to perform poorly. Supportive evidence is provided in a fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis on 51 projects conducted in a single R&D partnership. As this implies, interorganizational R&D teams should deliberately be composed to show a cross‐cutting demographic divide.
    April 03, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12049   open full text
  • Pre‐commercial procurement: a demand or supply policy instrument in relation to innovation?
    Charles Edquist, Jon Mikel Zabala‐Iturriagagoitia.
    R and D Management. April 03, 2014
    In 2006, the European Commission introduced the concept of ‘pre‐commercial procurement’ (PCP) as an instrument to promote innovation and to mitigate grand challenges. One of the main motives for the support of PCP schemes was to use public needs as a driver for innovation. This concept was also introduced as a response to the need to reinforce the innovation capabilities of the European Union while improving the quality and efficiency of public services. But what is meant by PCP? Is it a demand‐ or a supply‐side instrument in relation to innovation? This is the research question addressed in this paper, the goal being motivated by the lack of academic discussion in this direction. The paper is based on three cases, one from the Netherlands, one from the United Kingdom and one from Australia. These cases provide evidence that PCP is a matter of research and development (R&D) funding of a targeted kind, geared toward very specific goals and in a focused way. This leads the authors to conclude that PCP is a supply‐side policy instrument in relation to innovation. In this sense, they would like to raise a flag for going back to the origins of the PCP program and calling it a ‘precompetitive R&D program’, rather than labeling it as an innovation procurement instrument.
    April 03, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12057   open full text
  • An analysis of the knowledge base of scientific research and development business services.
    Davide Consoli, Dioni Elche.
    R and D Management. April 03, 2014
    It is argued that the literature on scientific research and development outsourcing focuses mostly on client firms, that is, the demand side, while little is known of the characteristics of the supplying sector. The present paper tackles this gap by elaborating an exploratory analysis of this business service sector with a view to analyze the main patterns of specialization and their evolution over time. Using data on job content and skill requirements in the United States, we elaborate a knowledge taxonomy of the sector and explore how different forms of knowledge coexist and coevolve.
    April 03, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12062   open full text
  • When communication quality is trustworthy? Transactive memory systems and the mediating role of trust in software development teams.
    Fangcheng Tang.
    R and D Management. March 10, 2014
    While the importance of communication frequency to transactive memory system (TMS) development has well been established, few studies have been done examining the relationship between communication quality and transactive memory systems in software development teams. This study empirically tests the relationships between communication quality and TMS, and the effect of TMS on team effectiveness. We also examine the mediating effect of trust on the link between communication quality and TMS. By investigating 86 software development teams in China, the results suggest that: (1) communication quality has a positive effect on TMS; (2) the link between communication quality and TMS is mediated by benevolence‐ and competence‐based trust; and (3) TMS has a positive impact on team performance. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study findings are discussed.
    March 10, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12051   open full text
  • The role of internal capabilities and firms' environment for sustainable innovation: evidence for Germany.
    Ihsen Ketata, Wolfgang Sofka, Christoph Grimpe.
    R and D Management. March 03, 2014
    Over the past decade, sustainable innovation has occupied a top‐ranking position on the agenda of many firms. Sustainable innovation can be broadly defined as an innovation that has to consider environmental and social issues as well as the needs of future generations. Although sustainable innovation provides considerable new opportunities for companies it goes along with an increased complexity. This in turn requires certain organizational routines and capabilities to deal with the upcoming challenges. We explore what the specific driving forces are that increase the degree of sustainable innovation within a firm's innovation activities. We test them empirically for more than 1,100 firms in Germany and find that firms need to invest in internal absorptive capacities and to draw both broadly and deeply from external sources for innovation. In that sense, investments in employee training turn out to be more important than technological R&D expenditures.
    March 03, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12052   open full text
  • Innovating the innovation process: an organisational experiment in global pharma pursuing radical innovation.
    Peter Robbins, Colm O'Gorman.
    R and D Management. March 03, 2014
    The challenge of managing the fuzzy front end of the innovation process is particularly acute for large, multi‐brand, research and development (R&D)‐intensive firms. Poor performance at generating radical innovations has resulted in many large organisations seeking to innovate how they organise for innovation. This paper presents an inductive, longitudinal study of an organisational experiment that sought to get ‘game‐changing, radical ideas’ into the new product development funnel of a top three pharma. The immediate outcomes of a team‐based internal innovation tournament included 33 new product ideas, 14 of which were radical. The medium term outcome of the experiment was a reorganisation of how the firm now pursues radical innovation activities. We link these outcomes to team leadership, contrasting innovation processes, including decisions about how to incorporate the ‘voice of the consumer’. The inductive, longitudinal study suggests causal interconnections between innovation team leadership, innovation team processes, and innovation outcomes.
    March 03, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12054   open full text
  • Mixing rich and asynchronous communication for new service development performance.
    Chris Storey, Helen Perks.
    R and D Management. March 03, 2014
    This article explores the nature of relationships between internal communication modes, new service development (NSD) competencies (specifically learning and development competencies) and NSD performance. To do so, it draws on and advances communication theory by comparing and contrasting the contingent approach, favoured by media richness theory and media synchronicity theory, with the multiplicative manner of dual coding theory. Antecedent roles of rich and asynchronous communication modes for two NSD competencies are investigated, and their function as critical contingency variables affecting the competencies–performance link is unravelled. An empirical quantitative study of senior managers of leading service firms was conducted, with a survey‐based methodology. Results show that a learning competency drives development competency which in turn drives NSD performance. Asynchronous communication is essential for learning competency but not for development competency. In contrast, rich communication underpins development but has no direct effect on learning competency. Rich communication is essential for NSD performance when a firm has a low development competency. The interaction between asynchronous and rich communication is shown to be positive for learning, whereas surprisingly it is negative for development competency.
    March 03, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12055   open full text
  • Exploring the contribution of innovation intermediaries to the new product development (NPD) process: a typology and an empirical study.
    Gabriele Colombo, Claudio Dell'Era, Federico Frattini.
    R and D Management. March 03, 2014
    In the ‘knowledge economy’ upheld by the European Lisbon strategy, knowledge‐intensive services are considered a key driver for innovation and competitiveness. A category of knowledge‐intensive services that has become of utmost importance in the last few decades is new product development (NPD) services, which interconnect distant knowledge domains with the client firms. In addition to NPD service providers, web‐based innovation intermediaries have started to help innovative firms access dispersed bodies of knowledge. Despite the heterogeneity of their characteristics, however, a clear typology of the strategies used by traditional NPD service providers and web‐based intermediaries to interact with their knowledge sources and with their clients is missing. This typology would be very useful for those firms that are willing to collaborate with innovation intermediaries because it could highlight the typologies of NPD problems different intermediaries are apt to address and the managerial challenges that working with them entails. Developing such a classification framework is the main goal of this paper. The typology proposed in this paper suggests that innovation intermediaries should be distinguished based on the following: (1) the way they access their distributed knowledge sources and (2) the way they deliver value to their clients. By combining these two dimensions, four categories of innovation intermediaries are identified, which are named brokers, mediators, collectors and connectors. A multiple case study analysis involving four innovation intermediaries and 12 of their clients is presented in the paper. The analysis provides exploratory insights into (1) the typologies of NPD problems that each class of intermediaries addresses and (2) the managerial challenges that working with each of them entails. These preliminary findings call for further theoretical and empirical research into the complex interaction among innovation intermediaries, their dispersed sources of knowledge and their clients.
    March 03, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12056   open full text
  • Decision making at the front end of innovation: the hidden influence of knowledge and decision criteria.
    Maicon Gouvêa Oliveira, Henrique Rozenfeld, Robert Phaal, David Probert.
    R and D Management. March 03, 2014
    Decision making at the front end of innovation is critical for the success of companies. This paper presents a method, called decision making based on knowledge (DeBK), which was created to analyze the decision‐making process at the front end. The method evaluates the knowledge of project information and the importance of decision criteria, compiling a measure that indicates whether decisions are founded on available knowledge and what criteria are in fact being considered to delineate them. The potential contribution of DeBK is corroborated through two projects that faced decision‐making issues at the front end of innovation.
    March 03, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12058   open full text
  • Factors influencing knowledge transfer between NPD teams: a taxonomic analysis based on a sociotechnical approach.
    Alejandro Germán Frank, José Luis Duarte Ribeiro, Márcia Elisa Echeveste.
    R and D Management. February 21, 2014
    This paper sets out a taxonomy of the main factors influencing knowledge transfer (KT) between new product development (NPD) teams, based upon a sociotechnical approach whose framework consists of personnel, technological, work design, and external environment subsystems. The taxonomy was constructed from a literature survey combined with: (1) interviews and focus groups conducted with NPD experts and (2) a principal component analysis applied to a survey of 82 companies. Such steps were necessary because of the large amount of data collected from the literature review. They combine extensive explanatory descriptions from qualitative analysis together with strong confirmatory results given by multivariate quantitative analysis. The final set of 16 main factors summarized more than 100 elements of the NPD environment that influence KT between NPD teams. The key contributions of the proposed taxonomy are: (1) It is the first proposal of an organized understanding about KT influence factors based on a systemic and sociotechnical perspective; (2) New variables emerge from such analysis; and (3) It helps to understand better the elements needed for KT management in the NPD process.
    February 21, 2014   doi: 10.1111/radm.12046   open full text
  • Scientific foundation, patents, and new product introductions of biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms.
    Allison D. Watts, Robert D. Hamilton.
    R and D Management. July 25, 2013
    Absorptive capacity (ACAP) has long been used in the research of technology firms as an indication of knowledge acquisition. This paper links knowledge input using new product introductions (NPI), to commercial output, addressing one of the key criticisms of research and development expenditures as a measure of an organization's effort. We propose that firms with a strong basic science foundation such as biology and chemistry seek to advance their scientific knowledge in addition to developing and selling innovative products. In contrast, corporations with a more applied focus forego fundamental scientific advancement and concentrate their actions on the development of innovative products. Results from a sample of 487 firms over a 10‐year period indicated that firms with an applied science foundation had greater numbers of NPIs, both breakthrough and innovative, suggesting that a solutions‐based approach had greater value in terms of innovative output. The pursuit of science may build knowledge, but a clear link between increased ACAP and innovative output was not found. Our results also suggest that basic science firms have a positive relationship with both breakthrough and incremental NPIs using merger and acquisition activities. Applied science firms found university alliances useful in generating NPIs.
    July 25, 2013   doi: 10.1111/radm.12023   open full text
  • Predicting new product success with prediction markets in online communities.
    Kurt Matzler, Christopher Grabher, Jürgen Huber, Johann Füller.
    R and D Management. July 25, 2013
    The prediction of new product success is still a challenging task. Traditional market research tools are expensive, time consuming, and error prone. Prediction markets have been introduced as a viable alternative. Utilizing inputs from various participants in game‐like environments, they have been shown to produce accurate results by combining dispersed knowledge via market‐based aggregation mechanisms. While most previous studies use employees or experts as a sample, we test whether online consumer communities can be used to predict the sale of new skis via prediction markets. Sixty‐two users took part in the study. The prediction market was open for 12 days before the main skiing season 2010/2011 began. The outcomes of the prediction markets were compared with the actual sales numbers provided by the ski producers. The mean average errors were between 2.74% and 9.09% in the four markets. Overall, it can be concluded that the prediction markets based on consumer communities produce accurate results.
    July 25, 2013   doi: 10.1111/radm.12030   open full text
  • Does board social capital influence chief executive officers' investment decisions in research and development?
    Hsiang‐Lan Chen, Mei Hsiu‐Ching Ho, Wen‐Tsung Hsu.
    R and D Management. July 22, 2013
    The findings of the chief executive officer (CEO) characteristics–research and development (R&D) investment relationship remain incomplete if previous unexamined contingencies are not considered. Very few studies in this area have invariably focused on the constraints from the external environment and overlooked the important influence of board social capital on such relationship. This study uses insights from resource dependence theory to examine how the effects of CEO characteristics on R&D investment are contingent on board social capital. The results show that board social capital mitigates/enhances the negative/positive effect of CEO tenure/CEO educational level on R&D investment, supporting the view that board social capital, as an important conduit to link firms to critical information and essential resources in the environment, may offer better counsel to CEOs and enhance their decision‐making capabilities in moving toward R&D. One important implication is that firms wishing to encourage innovation through R&D spending should consider nominating directors with rich social capital to the board because they may assist CEOs in coping with R&D complexities and acquiring requisite resources, leading to a better planning of R&D.
    July 22, 2013   doi: 10.1111/radm.12025   open full text
  • Technology alliances in emerging economies: persistence and interrelation in European firms' alliance formation.
    Jojo Jacob, René Belderbos, Victor Gilsing.
    R and D Management. July 22, 2013
    We analyse the patterns and determinants of technology alliance formation with partner firms from emerging economies with a focus on European firms' alliance strategies. We examine to what extent European firms' alliance formation with partners based in emerging economies is persistent – that is, to what extent prior collaborative experience determines new alliance formation – and we compare this pattern with alliance formation with developed country partners. Second, we examine to what extent prior engagement in international alliances with partners from developed countries increases the propensity to form technology alliances with partners based in emerging economies, and vice versa (interrelation). We find that both persistence and interrelation effects are present, and that they are generally not weaker for emerging economy alliances. Alliance formation with Indian and Chinese firms is significantly more likely if firms have prior alliance experience with Japanese firms. The findings suggest that building on their prior international alliance experience firms extend their alliance portfolios across both developed and emerging economies, increasing the geographical diversity of their alliance portfolios.
    July 22, 2013   doi: 10.1111/radm.12028   open full text
  • University–industry linkage evolution: an empirical investigation of relational success factors.
    Carolin Plewa, Nisha Korff, Thomas Baaken, Greg Macpherson.
    R and D Management. July 14, 2013
    University–industry linkages (UILs) offer an array of benefits for the parties involved and the economy at large; however, research provides limited theoretical development and practical advice on successfully managing UILs from initial negotiations to project completion and beyond. This paper, thus, empirically investigates the impact of relational success factors (communication, trust, understanding, individuals) on UIL performance across three phases of evolution, accounting for the changing manifestations of these factors over time. Communication emerged as a consistent predictor of success, with positive interrelationships between individuals advancing all relational success factors across all phases. A positive effect of trust and understanding, however, only emerged for some relationship phases. Results provide managers with insight into forms relational drivers take throughout long‐lasting successful UILs.
    July 14, 2013   doi: 10.1111/radm.12021   open full text
  • The determinants of innovation in green supply chains: evidence from an Italian sectoral study.
    Marco Frey, Fabio Iraldo, Francesco Testa.
    R and D Management. July 14, 2013
    Innovation processes are increasingly spreading through the unbounded universe of European small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It represents a fundamental opportunity especially for those SMEs operating in the so‐called ‘green economy’ sectors, in order to be competitive in a National, European and International market with their sustainable products and services. Drawing upon a database of over 300 enterprises operating within the eight defined green sectors, this paper assesses the determinants and drawbacks of innovation. In particular, by using an econometrical approach, we tested the following propositions: (1) small dimension of enterprises is not an obstacle to their innovation capabilities; (2) the adoption of an internationalisation strategy is an opportunity and a stimulus to innovation for SMEs; (3) cooperation with research centres, financial partners, trade association and public entities can help SMEs to overcome difficulties and help them to develop and offer innovative products and services, so to be competitive at an international level. The econometric analysis shows a positive impact of the variables ‘dimension’ and ‘level of internationalisation’ on innovation capabilities. In addition, cooperation with research centres and access to capital market are positively related with effective innovations.
    July 14, 2013   doi: 10.1111/radm.12020   open full text
  • Absorptive capacity and openness of small biopharmaceutical firms – a European Union–United States comparison.
    Tianjiao Xia.
    R and D Management. July 14, 2013
    The complementarities between internal capabilities and external linkages have been widely acknowledged in the open innovation literature, yet little is known about the extent to which internal capabilities affect firms' openness within different institutional contexts. This paper therefore empirically explores the relationship between absorptive capacity (ACAP) and openness in the United States and European biopharmaceutical sectors. Based on analysis of data from a large‐scale international survey of 349 biopharmaceutical firms in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, the results suggest that exploratory openness depends more strongly on the research and development (R&D) aspect of firms' potential absorptive capacity, whereas exploitative openness is more conditional on firms' realized absorptive capacity (RACAP). The results also highlight the major differences between firms' openness and ACAP in the United States and Europe – in the United States, firms' skill levels prove more significant in contributing to firms' engagement with exploratory relationships, whereas in Europe, continuity of R&D proves more important. Engagement with exploitative relationships, however, is more conditional on firms' RACAP in Europe only.
    July 14, 2013   doi: 10.1111/radm.12017   open full text
  • Foreign entry and firm R&D: evidence from Chinese manufacturing industries.
    Sajid Anwar, Sizhong Sun.
    R and D Management. July 14, 2013
    By making use of firm‐level panel data from 2005 to 2007, this paper empirically examines the relationship between research and development (R&D) behaviour and the presence of foreign firms in China's four major manufacturing industries. The manufacturing industries considered are (1) car manufacturing, (2) household electrical appliances, (3) electronics and (4) communication equipment manufacturing. We find that the presence of foreign firms has resulted in a significant increase in R&D intensity of all four manufacturing industries in China. While the average R&D intensity in communication equipment manufacturing is the highest, the electronics industry, which has the highest level of foreign presence, has experienced a relatively large increase in R&D intensity. This suggests that China's electronics manufacturing sector is responding to rising competition from foreign firms located in China. Foreign presence in China's car manufacturing sector is relatively small, and this industry has experienced a relatively small increase in R&D intensity because of foreign presence.
    July 14, 2013   doi: 10.1111/radm.12009   open full text
  • Robust future‐oriented technology portfolios: Black–Litterman approach.
    Juneseuk Shin, Byoung‐Youl Coh, Changyong Lee.
    R and D Management. July 14, 2013
    We propose a new way of constructing more robust technology portfolios to overcome the weaknesses of previous technology portfolios based either on the judgments of experts or on quantitative data such as patents. Instead of using historical data, the method of nonlinear forecasting enables us to forecast the future number of patent citations and accordingly, to use the forecast as a quantitative proxy for future returns and risks of technologies. Using the Black–Litterman portfolio model, we improve the accuracy of inputs by combining the future views of experts with the future returns and risks of technologies. As a consequence of this, the portfolio becomes strongly future‐oriented. With our approach, corporate managers use both experts and data more effectively to build robust technology portfolios. In particular, our method is of great help for companies launching new businesses because the method avoids heavy dependency on internal experts with little knowledge about emerging technologies. A company entering the molecular amplification instrument market is exemplified herein.
    July 14, 2013   doi: 10.1111/radm.12022   open full text
  • Explorative search for a high‐impact innovation: the role of technological status in the global pharmaceutical industry.
    Changsu Kim, Jong‐Hun Park.
    R and D Management. July 08, 2013
    Extant studies suggest that the potential benefits arising from exploration are associated with access to diverse and distant knowledge across organizational and technological boundaries. However, exploration is not sufficient to assure if innovation actually occurs. Our study identifies exploration into two types, organizational and technological, and argues that the innovative effect of a firm's explorative search beyond organizational and technological boundaries is best leveraged by its technological status in an industry. Data derived from the global pharmaceutical industry indicate that a firm's search across organizational boundaries has a positive effect on its innovation impact, and such effect is strengthened when the firm is high in its technological status. However, the firm's search moving beyond its technological boundary increases innovation impact only for the group of high technological status but decreases it for the low‐status group. It appears that, in the global pharmaceutical industry, a firm's technological status is most critical to exploit knowledge from distant technology domains.
    July 08, 2013   doi: 10.1111/radm.12026   open full text
  • The drivers of patent transactions: corporate views on the market for patents.
    Federico Caviggioli, Elisa Ughetto.
    R and D Management. July 08, 2013
    In recent years, the proactive management of patents and their exploitation through licensing out and sales transactions have been enhanced by the development of intermediaries and trading platforms. This paper first investigates the main drivers of companies' decisions to engage in patent licensing and sales; then, it examines how improvements in the marketplace for patents and more intense involvement of patent brokers might impact the factors hindering the development of patent transactions. The study's findings are supported by the results found in the scientific literature and by evidence from a survey conducted on a sample of companies involved in patent transactions.
    July 08, 2013   doi: 10.1111/radm.12016   open full text
  • Knowledge spillovers: cooperation between universities and KIBS.
    Cristina I. Fernandes, João J. M. Ferreira.
    R and D Management. July 08, 2013
    Knowledge is increasingly perceived as a fulcral factor to company competitiveness. As the transfer of knowledge is one of the key functions of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS), this research seeks to analyse how the transfer of knowledge takes place between the higher education sector and KIBS type firms. The empirical results show that cooperation between KIBS and universities occurs irrespective of the typology (whether professional or technological in focus). We also empirically establish how geographic proximity is the factor bearing greatest influence over cooperation while such cooperation proves to have a positive impact on the company capacity to innovate. We furthermore find that this innovation capacity also drives a positive company financial performance.
    July 08, 2013   doi: 10.1111/radm.12024   open full text
  • Innovation orientations and their effects on business performance: contrasting small‐ and medium‐sized service firms.
    Daniel I. Prajogo, Christopher M. McDermott, Margaret A. McDermott.
    R and D Management. July 08, 2013
    This study examines the relative performance of small‐ versus medium‐sized service firms with respect to innovation orientations and their effect on business performance. We examine the effect of innovation on business performance between the two groups of firms, exploring differences in innovation orientation on performance between the groups of small‐ and medium‐sized firms. We also examine differences within each group, exploring the extent to which innovation focus differs within each group. The empirical data were drawn from 180 managers in Australian service small and medium enterprises. The findings suggest that while there is no difference between small‐ and medium‐sized firms with respect to their innovation orientations, significant differences exist between the firm's size with respect to the effect of innovation orientations on business performance. Specifically, exploitation innovation has a stronger effect on business performance among small firms compared with medium‐sized firms, and exploration innovation shows a stronger effect on business performance among medium‐sized firms compared with small firms. Overall, the findings show important relative differences between innovation orientations and business performance across different sized firms.
    July 08, 2013   doi: 10.1111/radm.12027   open full text
  • Managerial challenges in open innovation: a study of innovation intermediation in the chemical industry.
    Jan Henrik Sieg, Martin W. Wallin, Georg Von Krogh.
    R and D Management. February 22, 2010
    The current open innovation literature needs to be complemented with work on the managerial challenges faced by companies working with an innovation intermediary to solve research and development (R&D) problems. Based on an exploratory case study design, we investigate these managerial challenges in seven chemical companies working with the same innovation intermediary. Three recurring challenges were identified in all companies: (1) enlisting internal scientists to work with the innovation intermediary; (2) selecting the right problems; and (3) formulating problems so as to enable novel solutions. Based on the knowledge management literature, we explain how these challenges arise out of scientists' different work practices in internal vs. external R&D problem solving and we identify and discuss a number of remedies to these challenges.
    February 22, 2010   doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9310.2009.00596.x   open full text