EXTERNAL R&D: EXPLORING THE FUNCTIONS AND QUALIFICATIONS OF R&D PERSONNEL

Knowledge has become an important production factor. Tacit knowledge is embodied in the minds of people, and is part and parcel of their skills. Since businesses concentrate on strategic tasks, many others are outsourced. This also applies to R&D. External knowledge sources help firms to leverage their internal R&D efforts. Internal and external knowledge have to be knitted together on the work floor giving rise to innovative products and processes. Since tacit knowledge is embodied in personnel, it is interesting to look at the role of the functions and the qualifications of R&D personnel in relation to activities developed in the framework of technical collaboration agreements. Using the OECD business R&D survey for Belgium, insights are offered in the way that external knowledge impacts on the organisation of the internal division of labour. It is demonstrated that absorptive capacity, embodied in people, is a key element in using external knowledge.

[1]  Alice Lam.  Tacit Knowledge, Organizational Learning and Societal Institutions: An Integrated Framework , 2000 .

[2]  Yasunori Baba,et al.  SOURCES OF SUCCESS IN ADVANCED MATERIALS INNOVATION: THE ROLE OF "CORE RESEARCHERS" IN UNIVERSITY–INDUSTRY COLLABORATION IN JAPAN , 2010 .

[3]  Richard R. Nelson,et al.  On the Sources and Significance of Interindustry Differences in Technological Opportunities , 1995 .

[4]  Boris Durisin,et al.  Absorptive capacity: Valuing a reconceptualization , 2007 .

[5]  Massimo G. Colombo,et al.  Technological cooperative agreements and firm's R & D intensity. A note on causality relations , 1996 .

[6]  Hsing-fen Lee,et al.  Career patterns and competences of PhDs in science and engineering , 2010 .

[7]  S. Roper,et al.  Modelling the innovation value chain , 2008 .

[8]  Ulrich Lichtenthaler,et al.  External Commercialization of Knowledge: Review and Research Agenda , 2005 .

[9]  Salvatore Torrisi,et al.  Markets for technology , 2001 .

[10]  Maryann Feldman,et al.  Academic Entrepreneurs: Organizational Change at the Individual Level , 2008, Organ. Sci..

[11]  Michael Roach,et al.  A Taste for Science? PhD Scientists’ Academic Orientation and Self-Selection into Research Careers in Industry , 2010 .

[12]  John P. Rice,et al.  The role of absorptive capacity in facilitating "open innovation" outcomes: A study of Australian SMEs in the manufacturing sector , 2009 .

[13]  Yannis Caloghirou,et al.  Internal capabilities and external knowledge sources: complements or substitutes for innovative performance? , 2004 .

[14]  M. Sheehan,et al.  Business strategy, human resources, labour market flexibility and competitive advantage , 2005 .

[15]  R. Gulati,et al.  The Architecture of Cooperation: Managing Coordination Costs and Appropriation Concerns in Strategic Alliances , 1998 .

[16]  Stephan Billinger,et al.  Special Issue: Organizational Design: Designing the Boundaries of the Firm: From "Make, Buy, or Ally" to the Dynamic Benefits of Vertical Architecture , 2006, Organ. Sci..

[17]  Waverly W. Ding,et al.  When Do Scientists Become Entrepreneurs? The Social Structural Antecedents of Commercial Activity in the Academic Life Sciences1 , 2006, American Journal of Sociology.

[18]  S. Zahra,et al.  Absorptive Capacity: A Review, Reconceptualization, and Extension , 2002 .

[19]  Balaji R. Koka,et al.  The Reification of Absorptive Capacity: A Critical Review and Rejuvenation of the Construct , 2006 .

[20]  Lloyd A. Jobe,et al.  Balancing vertical integration and strategic outsourcing: effects on product portfolio, product success, and firm performance , 2006 .

[21]  Thomas J. Allen,et al.  Age, education and the technical ladder , 1992 .

[22]  Alice Lam,et al.  Work Roles and Careers of R&D Scientists in Network Organizations , 2005 .

[23]  Jina Kang,et al.  HOW DO FIRMS SOURCE EXTERNAL KNOWLEDGE FOR INNOVATION? ANALYSING EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT KNOWLEDGE SOURCING METHODS , 2009 .

[24]  K. Pavitt.  Sectoral Patterns of Technical Change : Towards a Taxonomy and a Theory : Research Policy , 1984 .

[25]  Han Hendriks,et al.  Make, buy or ally , 2008 .

[26]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .

[27]  Charles F. Sabel,et al.  Pragmatic Collaborations: Advancing Knowledge While Controlling Opportunism , 2000 .

[28]  Reinhilde Veugelers,et al.  In Search of Complementarity in Innovation Strategy: Internal R&D and External Knowledge Acquisition , 2006, Manag. Sci..

[29]  V. Chiesa,et al.  Organizing for technological collaborations: a managerial perspective , 1998 .

[30]  Peter J. Lane,et al.  Relative absorptive capacity and interorganizational learning , 1998 .

[31]  O. Granstrand.  Economics, Law and Intellectual Property , 1999 .

[32]  Luigi Marengo,et al.  Towards A Characterization Of Assets And Knowledge Created In Technological Agreements: Some Evidence From The Automobile Robotics Sector , 2000 .

[33]  Ulrich Kaiser.  Measuring knowledge spillovers in manufacturing and services: an empirical assessment of alternative approaches , 2002 .

[34]  Mark Harvey,et al.  Analysing distributed processes of provision and innovation , 2003 .

[35]  Bart Verspagen,et al.  Technology and the dynamics of industrial structures: an empirical mapping of Dutch manufacturing. , 2002 .

[36]  Joaquín M. Azagra-Caro,et al.  Faculty support for the objectives of university–industry relations versus degree of R&D cooperation: The importance of regional absorptive capacity , 2006 .

[37]  S. Morris,et al.  Relational Archetypes, Organizational Learning, and Value Creation: Extending the Human Resource Architecture , 2007 .

[38]  A. James,et al.  The sourcing of technological knowledge: Distributed innovation processes and dynamic change , 2003 .

[39]  P. Boardman,et al.  Influencing scientists’ collaboration and productivity patterns through new institutions: University research centers and scientific and technical human capital☆ , 2010 .

[40]  V. Murray,et al.  Why the Human Resources Management Function Fails , 1984 .

[41]  W. Powell,et al.  Interorganizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnology. , 1996 .

[42]  Petter Nielsen,et al.  Competition and transformation in the learning economy - Illustrated by the Danish case , 1999 .

[43]  Max Keilbach,et al.  Concubinage or Marriage? Informal and Formal Cooperations for Innovation , 2005 .

[44]  R. Grant.  Toward a Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm,” Strategic Management Journal (17), pp. , 1996 .

[45]  M. Nieto,et al.  Absorptive capacity, technological opportunity, knowledge spillovers, and innovative effort , 2005 .

[46]  B. Kogut,et al.  What Firms Do? Coordination, Identity, and Learning , 1996 .

[47]  Jina Kang,et al.  THE EFFECTS OF TEACHER FIRMS' CHARACTERISTICS AND STUDENT FIRMS' ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY ON FIRM PERFORMANCE IN TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCES , 2009 .

[48]  F. Scherer,et al.  Top managers education and R&D investment , 1992 .