How to organize inter-organizational collaborations within R&D projects to improve their innovative performance? (R-4958)

In recent years, firms have increasingly engaged into collaborations in their research and development activities. While some firms have been extremely successful in their collaboration activities, a considerable number of many other firms reported remarkable difficulties or even experienced striking failures. At the same time, scholars also have been debating whether inter-organizational collaboration improve or hamper firm performance. In most companies, innovations are organized in R&D projects and are conducted by R&D teams. While existing studies on R&D collaborations have been almost exclusively built on firm-level observations, the micro-level dynamics of R&D collaborations, such as R&D projects, and R&D team members which are crucial in understanding successful R&D collaborations, are highly under-explored. In this research project, we want to make a major contribution to this field by determining the micro-level foundations of R&D collaborations focusing on the role of R&D project characteristics, technology characteristics, and R&D teams and team member characteristics. More precisely, we want to achieve the following four major research objectives: - First, we want to identify the conditions under which projects benefit the most from engaging into R&D collaborations, and provide a set of project characteristics (e.g.: resources, complexity, strategic purpose, and development stage) that positively contribute to successful collaborations. - Second, we intend to identify optimal timing in collaboration activities; - Third, we want a thorough understanding on the composition of collaboration portfolios in R&D projects. Finally, we want to address how to staff and manage collaborative R&D projects for successful R&D collaborations.

Keywords:STRATEGIC INNOVATION

Disciplines:Business administration and accounting, Management, Marketing