Collaborative R&D and European Industry

Rapid technological change and globalization are driving RD namely, rapid technological change, globally accessing technology and more demanding customers. However the perspective from various organizational layers on specific issues may differ considerably. A large majority of the corporate representatives expect an increase in volume. This is not the case among the business unit people. As the primary reason for collaboration, the corporate layer cited new product development, while environmental problems led the responses from business units. The strategic integration of collaborative R&D appears to be less than that of other R&D. Simple measures like formulating a policy and strategy for collaborative R&D, together with attention to good project management practices, enhance the chances for a successful collaboration considerably. With its 171 member companies, the European Industrial Research Management Association (EIRMA) represents approximately 60 percent of the total volume of industrial R&D in Europe. The EIRMA regularly organizes studies on current themes in R&D management. From September 1993 until May 1995, Workshop VI: "Effective Collaborative R&D," examined the changes that had occurred since 1988 (when a report of a previous EIRMA Working Group on the same topic was published), the effects of those changes on collaborative R&D, and the lessons that had been learned. As part of the study, a questionnaire was circulated EIRMA-wide. The resulting database provides valuable, and probably unique, information on the present thinking of a large fraction of the R&D-oriented European industry on collaborative R&D issues, and on recent experience with collaborative R&D. The contributing companies spend approximately $35 billion on R&D, of which probably close to 4 percent, on average, is used for collaborative R&D. The database allows analysis from a number of perspectives, including company size, country of origin, industry class, and position within the organization (corporate, divisional, business unit). In addition to 110 successful collaborations, the database contains 19 collaborations that were identified as failures. Although the latter number is small, it was felt that a detailed analysis of the failures group would be of interest. The results of this analysis are discussed later in this article. The Changing Context The bulk of the issues raised in the questionnaire relate to four areas in which major changes occurred over recent years (Table 1): 1. The Strategic Environment.-The overall picture from the database is that the main drivers for more collaborative R&D are: Rapid technological change. Possibility of globally accessing technology. More demanding customers. However, the organizational perspective shows marked differences. Business unit representatives put a much stronger relative emphasis on technological change than the corporate and divisional representatives. The expected increase in volume of collaborative R&D provides another example of differences in perspective, as can be seen in Table 2. 2. Strategic Thinking.-Prahalad and Hamel introduced the concept of core competences, and their work has attracted a lot of interest. Thus, Question 5 consisted of two parts: Part 1, "Is the concept of core competencies an integral part of the company strategy?" and Part 2, "Is the concept in the process of being implemented?" The response indicated a high level of interest: Only six companies out of 146 answered negatively to both parts. The core competence concept in its original context is used as part of strategic thinking aimed at the realization of a (usually) highly ambitious, strategic intent. …