Innovation and R&D management: are new paradigms observable?

The paper reports and discusses the results of a survey on "New paradigms of Innovation and RD centralisation and/or decentralisation of RD integration processes among different units (in and outside the company); and evaluation mechanisms of individual innovation projects and of the whole company innovation system. The second part gives deeper insights into the previous results. The global sample is segmented in a few subgroups (specific companies' "profiles" according to specific characteristics) whose behaviour is tested in relation with the two most relevant paradigms which emerged from the general results that of the externalisation of Innovation and that of the organisational autonomy.