Collaborative, pre-competitive R&D and the firm

Abstract Governments in many countries have supported programmes of collaborative, pre-competitive R&D in enabling or generic technologies. The paper is based on 6 years of research into theUK Alvey advanced information technology (IT) programme, augmented by research on the Swedish IT4 programme. Our focus is the relationship between pre-competitive, collaborative R&D and wider firm strategies and processes. The underlying premises of the paper are that the benefits of pre-competitive R&D are long-term rather than short-term, systemic rather than discrete, and accessible only through analysis of processes rather than by counting outputs or calculating return on investment. The research provides insights into the strategies and mechanisms of firms' participation, modes of collaboration, and the process of technology transfer, knowledge assimilation and application within a firm.

[1]  John W. Clarr.  Cooperative Strategies in International Business , 1990 .

[2]  R. Nelson.  The Simple Economics of Basic Scientific Research , 1959, Journal of Political Economy.

[3]  David C. Mowery,et al.  Collaborative ventures between U.S. and foreign manufacturing firms , 1989 .

[4]  Todd A. Watkins,et al.  A technological communications costs model of R&D consortia as public policy , 1991 .

[5]  C. Freeman.  Economics of Industrial Innovation , 1975 .

[6]  F. R. Jevons,et al.  Wealth from Knowledge , 1972 .

[7]  John S. Fryer.  The Production and Application of New Industrial Technology , 1977 .

[8]  Robert E. Evenson,et al.  Research and Productivity in Wheat and Maize , 1973, Journal of Political Economy.

[9]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R&D , 1989 .

[10]  Corporate strategies for managing emerging technologies , 1985 .

[11]  Richard R. Nelson,et al.  High-technology Policies: A Five Nation Comparison , 1985, American Political Science Review.

[12]  G. Dosi,et al.  Technical Change and Economic Theory , 1989 .

[13]  Mark Dodgson,et al.  Technology strategy and the firm : management and public policy , 1989 .

[14]  Michael Gibbons,et al.  The roles of science in technological innovation , 1993 .

[15]  Roy Rothwell,et al.  SAPPHO updated - project SAPPHO phase II , 1993 .

[16]  E. Hippel.  The dominant role of users in the scientific instrument innovation process , 1993 .

[17]  T. Allen.  Managing the flow of technology , 1977 .

[18]  M. Polanyi.  Personal Knowledge: Towards a post-critical philosophy , 1959 .

[19]  Paul Israel,et al.  The Sources of Innovation , 1990 .

[20]  W. Ouchi,et al.  The Logic of Joint Research and Development , 1988 .

[21]  D. Teece.  Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy , 1993 .

[22]  N. Rosenberg.  Why do firms do basic research (with their own money) , 1990 .

[23]  M. Aoki.  Horizontal vs. Vertical Information Structure of the Firm , 2013 .

[24]  Edward B. Roberts,et al.  Stimulating Technological Innovation: Organizational Approaches , 1979 .

[25]  Richard R. Nelson,et al.  Institutions supporting technical change in the United States , 1988 .

[26]  Erik Arnold,et al.  Parallel Convergence: National Strategies in Information Technology , 1986 .

[27]  K. Pavitt,et al.  The Elements of British Technological Competitiveness , 1987, National Institute Economic Review.

[28]  K. Pavitt.  What Do We Know about the Usefulness of Science? The Case for Diversity , 1991 .

[29]  Paul Quintas,et al.  Controversy Corner : Software engineering policy and practice: Lessons from the alvey program , 1994, J. Syst. Softw..

[30]  E. Sciberras,et al.  Government sponsored programmes for international technological exchanges and applied collective research , 1987 .

[31]  Richard N. Foster.  Timing Technological Transitions , 1986 .

[32]  D. Mowery,et al.  Technology and the pursuit of economic growth , 1991 .

[33]  Nathan Rosenberg,et al.  Inside the black box , 1983 .

[34]  Keith Pavitt,et al.  Key Characteristics of the Large Innovating Firm , 1991 .

[35]  Donald A. Schön,et al.  Organizational Learning: A Theory Of Action Perspective , 1978 .

[36]  K. Arrow.  Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention , 1962 .

[37]  O. Williamson,et al.  Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications. , 1977 .

[38]  S. Winter,et al.  An evolutionary theory of economic change , 1983 .

[39]  Paul Quintas,et al.  Engineering solutions to software problems: Some institutional and social factors shaping change , 1991 .

[40]  Joseph L. Badaracco,et al.  The knowledge link : how firms compete through strategic alliances / Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr. , 1993 .