Globalizing R & D around centres of excellence

Traditionally, foreign R & D has been confined to a limited role within the technological innovation process of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Recent surveys have shown that global R & D, i.e. the location of research and development labs in different countries, is growing. This paper analyses R & D globalization strategies and the decisions to locate R & D abroad. A framework for locating R & D facilities is presented, which is based on an investigation of the practices used in twelve multinational corporations.

Global R & D strategies depend on whether the firm is research-oriented or development-oriented; in other words, whether the firm's strength lies in research or development. The concept of an R & D centre of gravity is introduced. Locational decisions are affected by many factors, some relate to R & D and others relate to the firm and its environment.     

R & D and corporate planning in government

David Peretz is in charge of the Economics Section of the Inter-Bank Research Organization, London. Before that he served as an administrative civil servant in the Ministry of Technology, being for some of that time attached to the Programmes Analysis Unit (PAU) at Harwell, and concerned with studies of the organization of government industrial R & D establishments.

This article is based on a paper submitted—in their personal capacities—by the author and James Robertson (Director of IBRO) to the Government in February 1972. This paper was in turn inspired by the Government's publication of Lord Rothschild's report on ‘The Organization and Management of Government R & D’.

Like other large organizations, governments are having to come to grips with the interaction between long range planning and R & D activities. Changes are called for both in the methods of choosing priorities for R & D projects and in the organization of the Government's own research resources. The implications of ‘corporate’ planning for Government science have yet to be fully recognized.     

Corporate raiders don't cut investment in R & D

A focal point of the public debate over the effects of corporate mergers and acquisitions is their impact on the level of spending on long term projects. This study examines the pre-and post-merger levels of spending on R & D and the more general category of capital expenditures. Analysis of expenditures for a sample of firms drawn from the largest corporate mergers in the US during the late 1970s indicate that long term spending rises significantly in the post-merger environment. This supports the view that acquiring firms. whether hostile or friendly, recognize the relationship between such spending and firm value.     

Patent portfolios for strategic R&D planning

Empirical research has found a discrepancy between the perceived importance and the actual level of information on competitor's R&D strategies. It has been argued in the literature that patent information might be used to overcome this information deficit. However, empirical research further reveals that patent information is rarely used in strategic R&D planning. The present paper explores this issue and introduces two types of patent portfolios for strategic R&D planning. In patent portfolios on the company level, patenting strategies are identified and the quality of overall technological positions is benchmarked against relevant competitors. In addition, we present a patent portfolio on the technological level, which, as it is known from various technology portfolios, helps companies to manage the allocation of R&D resources effectively. Based on patent data from 21 German, European and Japanese mechanical engineering companies we show the application of both patent portfolios for strategic R&D planning purposes. The patent portfolios prove to be a very valuable tool for R&D decision makers in companies. Based on the experiences made in the case study, recommendation for the effective use of patent portfolios are formulated.     

‘Shark repellents’: How to avoid hostile takeovers

Defensive measures againts the increasing merger trend in business are discussed. The purpose of the paper is to examine the types of measures that can be taken in the interests of top management and of shareholders. It takes no stand on whether mergers are themselves a good or bad phenomenon but discusses all the options available to enable managers and shareholders to effect their own decisions.     

The corporate road-map—Planning at Babcock & Wilcox

This article reports on the status of the planning program at Babcock & Wilcox. The article is divided into three parts. The first section describes the theory and structure of the B&W Corporate Strategic Plan and the plans that comprise it; the second section discusses what characterizes a good plan; and the third previews what might be in store for the Company.     

Cognitive and interpersonal abilities related to the primary activities of R&D managers

This study attempted to identify the primary activities performed by R&D managers at different supervisory levels, and the cognitive and interpersonal ability requirements that underlie these activities. A task inventory containing 244 managerial tasks was completed by 117 R&D managers in nine organizations. The 48 tasks which managers rated as having spent the most time were factor analyzed, resulting in the identification of three primary activities: project management, personnel supervision, and strategic planning. Furthermore, these activities varied with supervisory level, with R&D managers performing a wider range of these activities with the progression from first-line to upper-level management.Thirty R&D managers later rated the degree to which 19 cognitive and interpersonal abilities were required for performing these primary activities. Strategic planning was rated as requiring significantly higher levels of oral expression, logical reasoning, originality, fluency of ideas, oral defense, and resistance to premature judgement than was required for the other two primary activities. Personnel supervision required a higher level of social sensitivity than was required for the other two activities. Project management required high levels of information ordering, oral fact- finding ability, problem sensitivity, and oral and written comprehension. Implications of the findings for understanding R&D managerial performance and personnel staffing functions are discussed.     

Investment and planning in R & D

When planning investment in R & D the required resources must be available—including intellectual resources. Ideally all the issues should be clear: and the R & D programme itself should be the most direct route to the objective, avoiding costly lavishness that may divert attention and effort. Innovation involves using intellectual capital and resources to their best advantage, for commercially worthwhile technical progress in industry. Planning is one of the ‘tools’ and both R & D and investment are ‘materials’ of progress. In this paper, the author examines the many implications behind this statement.     

Selecting R & D projects for development

This article describes a framework which attempts to identify R & D new product decision criteria in depth. Recommendations of attributes and measurement yardsticks, and examples of goal values, are difficult to provide since there is little support in this literature. For this reason, the major contribution of the framework is in the treatment of the attributes, yardsticks and goal values as a decision-making system. Attributes, yardsticks and goal values were chosen to complement each other and to describe a content picture.     

R&D portfolio selection by using qualitative pairwise comparisons

A new multicriteria decision aid, QualScal, is applied to the problem of selecting an extramural Fisheries R&D portfolio in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. QualScal has been developed for the situation where the characteristics of the decision alternatives cannot be readily quantified. The decision-maker is only required to state either indifference or preference for each pair of the alternatives. A map representing the preference structure of the decision maker is produced with the aid of an enhanced version of the traditional nonmetric multidimensional scaling procedure, capable of scaling disjoint subsets of alternatives. Averaged results for the group of decision-makers facilitate a discussion to determine a mutually acceptable portfolio.