Organizational and human resource management and innovation: Which management practices are linked to product and/or process innovation?

We examine the determinants of firms’ innovation success, using the firm-level data from the Japanese National Innovation Survey. We focus on the relationship between organizational and human resource management practices for research and development (R&D) and product/process innovation. We find that interdivisional cooperation/teams and the creation/relocation/integration of R&D centers are positively associated with both product and process innovation. Having board members with an R&D background is positively associated with product innovation, implying that top-down R&D decision-making may be important for firms to introduce new products. Among the factors examined, personnel assessment reflecting R&D outcomes appears to have an especially strong relationship with product innovation. Moreover, the positive relationship between the creation/relocation/integration of R&D centers and innovation success suggests that drastic organizational changes can work as a clear signal of firms’ determination to pursue an innovation-oriented strategy and help to accelerate innovation success.     

The impacts of different R&D organizational structures on performance of firms: Perspective of absorptive capacity

To speed up strategic alliance in R&D activities, different forms of R&D organization structures can be summarized into different roles including the input-oriented, the output-oriented, and the matrix organization structure. The most common mode of strategic alliance consists of horizontal and vertical integrations. However, the study adopting absorptive capacity to examine the impacts of different R&D organization structures on the performance of firms at different alliance modes has never been discussed. Therefore, the paper employs absorptive capacity to mediate the relationships between different R&D organization structures and the performance of firms. Since the theory of transaction cost economics is inadequate for addressing how well the technological knowledge develops in the organization. A conceptual model to analyze the tension between product strategies and their strategy implementation is proposed to challenge the vacancy. Practical investigation shows that a matrix R&D organizational structure mainly transfers knowledge to input-oriented R&D organizational structures in horizontal integration, and mainly integrates capabilities from output-oriented organizational structures in vertical integration. The result implies that stronger institutional environments lead to a stronger link between product strategies and their performance in vertical integration. Oppositely, the link is strengthened if more favorable attitudes and weaker management controls are present in horizontal integrations.     

Geographic dispersion and co-location in global R&D portfolios: Consequences for firm performance

We examine how the ways in which firms geographically configure their global portfolios of R&D units influence the effectiveness of firms’ own R&D investments and of external technical knowledge in enhancing firm performance. Our analysis indicates that the strength of these effects depends on the extent to which firms spread their R&D units across countries (geographic dispersion of R&D) and the extent to which firms establish multiple R&D units within each country (co-location of R&D). We show that geographic dispersion and co-location are associated with distinct value creation and value capture mechanisms and in turn lead to different performance outcomes. Although geographic dispersion enhances the effects of a firm’s own R&D on its performance, R&D co-location limits such effects. These relationships are reversed when we consider the effects of external technical knowledge on firm performance. R&D co-location, rather than geographic dispersion, is what renders the exploitation of external knowledge more effective in enhancing firm performance. Our results suggest that future research should shift its focus from the degree of R&D globalization to how a portfolio is globalized and geographically structured.     

Marketing/R&D integration in the pharmaceutical industry

Integrating marketing and R&D inputs is one of the fundamental challenges in managing innovation. In the pharmaceutical industry, considering its reputed ‘technology push’ model of innovation, the challenge of integrating marketing and R&D could hardly be greater. Thus, the recent trend among pharmaceutical firms of implementing Marketing/R&D integrating mechanisms calls for upgrading our conceptualization of the innovation process in this industry. It also raises important questions regarding Marketing's contribution in new product development, and how to organize to assure that contribution is leveraged. We use the case of a pharmaceutical firm which recently implemented Marketing/R&D integrating mechanisms to examine Marketing's new roles. We find that the extreme conditions surrounding innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, notably the need to cope with Knightean uncertainty, highlight important contributions of Marketing input in R&D that deserve more attention. We suggest that Marketing's most important contribution under these conditions lies in ‘not getting it wrong’ rather than ‘getting it right,’ in setting minimum criteria in project evaluations rather than definite targets, and in refocusing the attention of R&D staff through the very process of providing this input. Given the value of these contributions, modern pharmaceutical firms would indeed be ill advised to think of drug discovery as merely a linear process. Drug development has become an interactive process where the timing, type and impact of Marketing involvement is balanced and managed via certain organizational mechanisms throughout the R&D process, which is an iterative one.     

R&D priority-setting for global catastrophic risks: The case of the NASA planetary defense mission

"Mission-oriented" public research organizations invest in R&D to improve decision-making around complex policy problems from climate change to asteroid impacts, thus producing public value. However, the estimation of benefits produced by such R&D projects is notoriously difficult to predict and measure - a challenge that is magnified for global catastrophic risks (GCRs). GCRs are highly uncertain risks that may pose enormous negative consequences for humanity. This article explores how public research organizations systematically reduce key uncertainties associated with GCRs. Building off of recent literature highlighting the organizational and political factors that influence R&D priority-setting at public research organizations, this article develops an analytical framework for explaining R&D priority-setting outcomes that integrates the key stages of decision analysis with organizational and political dynamics identified in the literature. This framework is then illustrated with a case study of the NASA Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which addresses the GCR of near-Earth object (asteroid and comet) impacts. The case study reveals how organizational and political factors interact with every stage in the R&D priority-setting process - from initial problem definition to project selection. Lastly, the article discusses the extent to which the case study can inform R&D priority-setting at other public organizations, particularly those addressing GCRs.     

The moderating role of internal and external resources on the performance effect of multitasking: Evidence from the R&D performance of surgeons

R&D employees frequently must split their limited time between explorative R&D and exploitative operative tasks. This article explores the influence of this multitasking (pursuing both R&D and operations) on employee R&D performance. The article also analyzes how the relationship between multitasking and individual R&D performance interacts with the degree of access to internal and external resources. We hypothesize that multitasking positively affects R&D performance. Furthermore, we assume that the internal resources (funding, facilities, and support) are increasingly relevant when employees combine R&D and operative activities. However, multitasking employees may show less of a need for external resources (access to networks) in comparison to more focused colleagues. The results of a survey of 332 surgeons from 20 academic medical centers in Germany support our hypotheses. We conclude that managers should ensure that their R&D workforce is also involved in daily operations. Output will be optimized if these employees are not only engaged with explorative tasks but are also involved in exploitative activities. However, managers should also ensure that the appropriate organizational support is provided to individuals who attempt to combine exploration and exploitation. Multitasking individuals benefit the most from access to internal resources, whereas external resources are more efficiently allocated to explorative-only employees.     

模块化系统间逻辑关系及其对新产品绩效影响机制研究

从企业模块化战略对新产品绩效的影响出发,探索技术模块化、产品模块化与流程模块化三者间逻辑关系,发掘产品创新性的中介效应。以中西部多家制造企业为样本,运用结构方程模型进行实证检验,力图揭示模块化策略对新产品绩效的影响机理。研究发现：产品层面的模块化系统中,产品技术模块化推动产品模块化发展,且产品模块化提升制造流程的模块化水平;产品模块化及技术模块化通过显著提升产品创新性来促进新产品绩效。     

资源拼凑、团队即兴与初创企业新产品开发绩效

本研究构建了资源拼凑、团队即兴与初创企业新产品开发绩效关系的理论模型,通过运用结构方程模型对广州地区133家初创企业研发团队问卷调查数据进行实证研究发现：（1）资源新目的重组不但对初创企业新产品开发绩效产生显著的直接正向影响,而且还分别通过研发团队的认知即兴和行为即兴两个中间变量对初创企业新产品开发绩效产生显著的间接正向影响;（2）资源将就使用和资源就地取材对初创企业新产品开发绩效均没有显著的影响,但资源将就使用仍然会通过研发团队行为即兴,对初创企业新产品开发绩效产生显著的间接正向影响,而研发团队资源就地取材也会通过团队认知即兴和行为即兴,正向影响初创企业新产品开发绩效;（3）研发团队的团队即兴包括认知即兴和行为即兴,均对初创企业新产品开发绩效产生显著的直接正向影响作用。     

Anticipatory innovation of professional services: The case of auditing and artificial intelligence

With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), professional services firms (PSFs) need to innovate their services to adapt to AI. However, traditional ad hoc innovations driven by individual professionals have limitations in incorporating new technology outside their expertise. Although service R&D—an organizational function for centralized coordination of service innovations in strategically targeted areas—is potentially effective, studies on service R&D have still been scarce. This case study aims to fill the gap by examining how PSFs can establish and utilize service R&D to innovate services, overcoming the challenges of AI adoption. An in-depth qualitative study was conducted on the process by which the Big Four audit firms incorporated AI into their external audit service in Japan in the 2010s. The analysis shows the detailed process of how newly created service R&D organizations advanced AI adoption in the case firms. This study contributes to the literature on innovations in services and PSFs by (1) demonstrating the neglected but critical role of service R&D as an innovation enabler beyond the existing expertise of service firms, (2) constructing a three-phase model of the evolution of the service R&D function, and (3) suggesting the significance of innovation process design for the legitimation of innovations. This study also expands our knowledge of AI adoption, presenting a process tailored to address the challenges inherent in AI adoption for PSFs.     

Do linkages between farmers and academic researchers influence researcher productivity? The Mexican case

A growing body of literature is focusing on how the collaborations researchers engage in affect their productivity. Most authors have focused on linkages among academic researchers, measuring productivity by the number of papers published in ISI journals. In contrast, the impact of interactions between academic researchers and the business sector on research productivity has been less analyzed. The aim of this paper is to analyze how broadly defined research productivity (papers, new recommendations and new techniques) in agriculture-related fields is affected by the nature of academy-farmers interactions. This latter was approached through two dimensions: the breadth of linkages and their intensity, measured by the duration, in two different modalities (R&D activities and consultancy). Based on original micro data obtained through a survey of researchers working in universities and PRCs in agriculture-related fields, we built three models, one per output, to identify the effect of the nature of interactions on research productivity. The models were estimated with a negative binomial distribution using Maximum Likelihood estimators. We found a positive relationship between interaction with farmers and publishing of papers when interactions are carried out through the R&D modality. We also found that the impact of the nature of interactions on research productivity differs according to the type of research output. The impact is broader in the case of new recommendations than in the other outputs. The production of new recommendations is positively influenced by both the breadth of linkages and their duration through both modalities of interaction (R&D and consultancy).     

(International) R&D collaboration and SMEs: The effectiveness of targeted public R&D support schemes

This study analyses the impact and effectiveness of targeted public support for R&D investment at the firm level. We test whether the policy design aiming at incentivizing (international) collaboration and R&D in SMEs achieves input as well as output additionality. Our results show that the targeted public subsidies trigger R&D spending, especially so in internationally collaborating SMEs. We further evaluate the different impact of privately financed and publicly induced R&D investment on innovation performance. The results confirm that the publicly induced R&D is productive as it translates into marketable product innovations. While both types of R&D investments trigger significant output effects, the effect of policy-induced R&D investment on sales from market novelties is highest for international collaborators as well as for SMEs.     

Resource creation and partnership in R&D consortia

In this article, we examine, through an analysis of characteristics specific to both the partner firm and the consortium, the process of creating new resources and competencies in research and development (R&D) consortia. As interfirm cooperation develops, issues concerning the role of competencies and specific resources become increasingly relevant. While theoretical work in this area has grown significantly, empirical analysis has been less systematic; we attempt here to fulfill the insufficiencies in empirical analysis. Since we are interested in how individual participating companies succeed in creating resources, our research is focused on the partner firm itself and not on the consortium as a whole. Our statistical analysis of 317 firms enables us to examine the different types of technological developments that can be achieved through EUREKA R&D consortia. We study the impact that partner characteristics and the choice of a consortium's organizational form can have on the types of resources created by a partner. Our findings, which detail the factors that affect the creation of competencies in R&D consortia, strongly support the resource-based theory of the firm.     

The lag structure of the relationship between patenting and internal R&D revisited

The principal purpose of this study is to revisit the classic research question regarding the lag structure of the patents–R&D relationship through an examination of the impact of internal R&D on firm patenting in the context of the global pharmaceutical industry during 1986–2000. Our empirical analysis, using both a multiplicative distributed lag model and a dynamic linear feedback model, differs from previous work that examines the patents–R&D relationship in three aspects. First, our estimation results exhibit direct evidence on lagged R&D effects, with the first lag (t − 1) of R&D being significant in all distributed lag specifications. Second, a U-shaped lag structure of the patents–R&D relationship is found in most estimations of the multiplicative distributed lag model, which suggests a potential long-run effect of internal R&D investments on firm patenting. Finally, the results from the dynamic linear feedback model coincide with those from the multiplicative distributed lag model, indicating not only lag effects from more recent R&D but also an overall long-run effect of internal R&D investments in the distant past on the knowledge production or innovation process of incumbent pharmaceutical firms.     

Globalization of R&D: recent changes in the management of innovation in transnational corporations

Large multinational firms are the drivers for the globalization of R&D and innovation activities. There was a strong movement to establish a transnational configuration of R&D between 1985 and 1995. In recent years, however, R&D strategies and international location decisions have changed substantially. This paper is based on an in-depth analysis of R&D internationalization in 21 large corporations in Europe, Japan and the US. Our findings suggest that transnational corporations have tended to consolidate and streamline their organizations since the mid-1990s. Distributed R&D activities and globally-dispersed innovation processes have resulted in overly complex and unmanageable organizational architectures. This has induced firms to search for `leaner' and more effective types of managing their international portfolio of innovation activities. We learned that the spatial distribution of learning and R&D performing activities is something different than the spatial distribution of coordination and control. Many companies in our sample have adapted a strategy of multiple centers of learning with one dominant center of coordination. A framework is developed to serve as a basis for analyzing different patterns of internationalization of R&D and innovation, and for assessing the appropriate mechanisms to coordinate and control an international network of technological competence centers.     

Containing the Not-Invented-Here Syndrome in external knowledge absorption and open innovation: The role of indirect countermeasures

This paper builds new theory and provides supporting evidence to contain the Not-Invented-Here Syndrome (NIHS) – a persistent decision-making error arising from an attitude-based bias against external knowledge. Conceptually, we draw on the 4i framework of organizational learning to develop a novel process perspective on NIHS. This allows us not only to unpack how and where NIHS impedes organizational learning, but also to identify the key requirements for effective NIHS countermeasures. Importantly, countermeasures fall into two categories: those that seek to change the negative attitude directly (direct NIHS countermeasures) and those that seek to attenuate the behavioral impact of negative attitudes without addressing the attitudes as such (indirect NIHS countermeasures). While the evidence base on direct NIHS countermeasures has grown over the last decade, indirect NIHS countermeasures have received little research attention. To address this gap, we adopt a mixed methods research design composed of two complementary empirical studies – the first qualitative and the second quantitative. Study 1 explores the prevalence of distinct NIHS countermeasures in collaborative R&D practice. Based on 32 interviews and three focus group meetings with R&D employees, we find that a broad array of primarily direct NIHS countermeasures is employed in R&D practice. Study 2 addresses the scarcity of scholarly and managerial insights on indirect NIHS countermeasures by testing the effectiveness of perspective taking as a debiasing technique to contain negative attitudes at the level of the individual. Based on quantitative survey data from 565 global R&D projects, it provides empirical evidence not only for the prevalence and negative effects of NIHS on project success as mediated by external knowledge absorption, but also for the effectiveness of perspective taking as an exemplary indirect NIHS countermeasure.     

Specialisation precedes diversification: R&D productivity effects

We model how R&D enters the innovation system in four ways (intramural, extramural, cooperative, and spillover). Despite measuring three different spillovers together, for a very large sample of European enterprises we conclude that the productivity effects of spillovers were at best smaller than intramural R&D productivity effects. We also find that building on the greater skills and experience of enterprises already undertaking R&D (intensity) raised labour productivity more than providing support for those beginning R&D (extensity). Optimal extramural R&D intensity was higher than the actual level; sample firms could boost productivity either by abandoning extramural R&D or by doing much more. There were substantial differences in our sample between enterprises and countries in terms of R&D spillovers. Greater multinational corporation incidence in new EU members accounted for these countries' high direct R&D intensity productivity, regardless of their generally low overall labour productivity. Absorptive capacity made little difference to the utilisation of spillovers.     

Regional economic integration and R&D investment

We analyze the influence of a regional economic integration agreement (REIA) on a firm's investments in research and development (R&D). A country's entry into a REIA creates two competing influences on the firm's R&D investments. On the one hand, increased competition in product markets after the REIA would induce the firm to invest in internal R&D to improve its distinctive technological competitiveness. On the other hand, better access to sources of inputs in factor markets after the REIA would induce the firm to purchase external R&D because it can outsource technology more easily. Surprisingly, the empirical analysis shows that the REIA's impact on R&D investment is driven primarily by product markets rather than by factor markets. After the REIA, product markets induce firms not only to invest more in internal R&D but also purchase more external R&D. In contrast, after the REIA factor markets have limited influence on internal or external R&D investments.     

R&D strategies and entrepreneurial spawning

This paper analyzes how different R&D strategies of incumbent firms affect the quantity and quality of their entrepreneurial spawning. When examining entrepreneurial ventures of ex-employees of firms with different R&D strategies, three things emerge: First, firms with persistent R&D investments and a general superiority in sales, exports, productivity, profitability and wages are less likely to generate entrepreneurs than firms with temporary or no R&D investments. Second, start-ups from knowledge intensive business service (KIBS) firms with persistent R&D investments have a significantly increased probability of survival. No corresponding association between the R&D strategies of incumbents and survival of entrepreneurial spawns is found for incumbents in manufacturing sectors. Third, spin-outs from KIBS-firms are more likely to survive if they start in the same sector, indicating the importance of inherited knowledge. These findings suggest that R&D intensive firms are less likely to generate employee start-ups, but their entrepreneurial spawns tend to be of higher quality.     

Behavioural additionality of R&D subsidies: A learning perspective

The use of R&D grants as a policy instrument has been motivated by economic arguments of market failure. Neo-classical econometric studies have analysed the additionality of one Euro of subsidies on both the investments of companies in the R&D process and the output of that R&D process. More recently, behavioural additionality has been launched as a third form of additionality. In contrast to input and output additionality, behavioural additionality is related to changes in the processes that take place within the firm. In this paper, we analyse the determinants of the behavioural additionality of R&D grants. To explain the mechanism through which behavioural additionality is obtained, we use organizational learning theory as a guide to formulate our hypotheses. Hypotheses are tested using a telephone survey of 192 recipients of R&D grants provided by the IWT in Flanders in 2001–2004, matched to a sample of 84 firms that undertake innovation activities but which had never had a grant bid accepted. We find that congenital learning and interorganizational learning lead to increased behavioural additionality. However, these learning effects decrease with the number of subsidized projects that are undertaken by the company.     

Knowledge integration in the shadow of tacit spillovers: Empirical evidence from U.S. R&D labs

Integrating knowledge across a firm's value chain (e.g. between R&D, marketing and manufacturing functions), which we denote “Knowledge Integration” (KI), has been consistently found to be a strong predictor of product innovation performance in the management literature. Such cross-functional integration does not occur by chance, but by design, as a result of managerial practices and organizational arrangements. The significant heterogeneity characterizing the diffusion of cross-functional integration across firms is suggestive of the well-known tension between internal and external diffusion of knowledge. In this paper, we argue that the hidden cost of KI is to expose firms to a higher risk of knowledge leakages and provide the first systematic empirical evidence of this apparent tension between internal and external knowledge flows. Based on data from the CMU Survey (one of the rare datasets offering observables on both sides of the tension for a representative set of R&D active firms in the US), we investigate the impact of knowledge spillovers to competitors on internal cross-functional knowledge integration involving the R&D function among manufacturing firms. We find that the intensity of (tacit) R&D knowledge spillovers at the industry-level has a negative and significant impact on the likelihood that firms adopt or achieve KI. Our results therefore suggest that firms may trade their optimal innovative performance against superior appropriability of their rents.