The effect of managerial distribution of scientific and technical information on company performance

272 scientific and technical personnel working in the R&D departments of 25 firms in the electronics/instrumentation field noted how often their managers engaged in different forms of influencing them to use scientific and technical information originating outside the firm (STI). The firms were classified as either 'high performers' or as 'low performers' on the basis of their sales growth and return on assets. Managers in the high performing firms were perceived to make significantly more use of the following forms of influence than those in low performing firms; supporting professional visits and continuing education, routing literature and references to scientific and technical staff, directing their staff to use STI and purchasing STI services. There was no difference between the two groups of managers in their perceived use of organizational efforts to increase use of STI, such as changing work and personnel and altering hiring and promotional policies. These findings suggest that company performance can be improved if managers take specific steps to encourage their staff to use STI.     

Managers and the distribution of Scientific and Technical Information

Keeping in touch with progress in science and technology is one of the most important functions of R&D organizations. A study of nine engineering organizations shows that managers recognize this importance and consciously plan ways to encourage their subordinates to use scientific and technical information (STI) originating at outside organizations. The most prevalent forms of influence are routing articles and encouraging interpersonal contacts with outside professionals.
Managers especially route information and references related to sources of STI uniquely accessible to the manager. Such information includes:
—notices about and notes from meetings restricted to managers;
—unpublished material and preprints sent to the manager for review or because of the manager's reputation;
—articles from publications more likely to be read by managers; and
—information on the directions and accomplishment of competitive firms.     

Scientific and technical information transfer for high technology: keeping the figure in its ground

The gatekeeper approach to the management of scientific and technical information (STI) is most relevant to companies engaged in product development in a dynamic technological environment (Allen, Tushman, & Lee, 1977). We will argue in this paper that these companies have a choice of how to effectively organize. The organizational structure and processes they implement will have major effects on how STI is transferred as well as the quality of the STI that is disseminated and used. Hence, changing the context within which STI is transferred may be much more effective than improving the efficiency of existing transfer procedures.     

The technological gatekeeper and policies for national and international transfer of information

In this paper, the main conclusions of the research which has demonstrated the significance of person to person communication in technical information transfer are summarized. Some of the major international and national policy statements and projects on ‘STI’ are then reviewed in the light of these findings. Finally, the implications of the comparison are discussed and suggestions put forward as to how the agencies concerned and the Information Profession may take active measures to further develop the informal channels, shown to be the most effective of those available.     

Targeting technical information to organizational positions

This article describes the importance of scientific and technical information for the technical personnel at various organizational hierarchies and how these people satisfy their information needs. Inter- and intraorganizational channels used for information acquisition are discussed. Implications of these channels are discussed for industrial marketing.     

Models for developing managers

A key requirement for a top manager—whether from a scientific/technical background or from a commercial/administrative background—is the ability to appreciate and integrate the contributions that can be made by all the disciplines and viewpoints around the boardroom table.
It is no more difficult for a scientist to appreciate the perspectives of, say, production or marketing people than it is for them to appreciate those of the scientist. A great deal of general management development theory and practice is therefore equally applicable to the needs of those entering the domain of management from technical and scientific disciplines as it is to those arriving from the commercial, industrial and financial spheres.
The purpose of this paper is to outline a set of theoretical sources which have been found to assist managers and technical personnel to address cross-cultural issues within and between organisations.     

Bidirectional Information Transfer: An Imperative for Network and Marketing Integration in a Canadian Telecommunications Firm

Market intelligence helps ensure that R&D efforts are focused on customer needs. In turn, R&D supplies the information necessary for gaining competitive advantage through advances in product and process technology. However, improved R&D–marketing integration means more than simply involving additional marketing personnel in product development. We must focus on identifying and achieving the desired level of integration. Jozée Lapierre and Brigitte Hénault present the results of a study examining the R&D–marketing interface in a large Canadian telecommunications company. Their study explores managers' perceptions of interfunctional integration during the planning and implementation of new services. The goal of this study is to identify the critical integration areas and managers' satisfaction with the organization's current level of integration. Network (i.e., technical) and marketing managers differ substantially in their perceptions of the required level of integration. However, they agree on the five most important areas of interfunctional integration: marketing involvement in establishing service development schedules; information transfer from marketing to network on competitors' moves; information transfer from marketing to network on customer requirements for new services; information transfer from network to marketing on network availability for providing evolved services; and information transfer from network to marketing on network restrictions affecting performance, after-sales servicing levels, and service pricing. In other words, network and marketing managers view information transfer between their groups as requiring the highest integration level. Both groups agree that their budgeting activities do not require as much integration as other activities. Managers from both groups are generally dissatisfied with the current level of interfunctional integration. Marketing managers are far more dissatisfied than network managers in most areas of integration explored in this study. However, network managers are more dissatisfied than their marketing colleagues in all areas involving the transfer of information from marketing to network.     

Coordination of Design Supply Chains for Bundling Physical and Software Products*

Research on product development management has concentrated on physical products or on software, but not both. This article explores a special new product development (NPD) approach in which the internal development of core physical products is augmented by bundled and largely outsourced software features. We studied a medical device producer that has established a new medical information product group (MIPG) within their NPD organization to create software features that are bundled with their core physical products. The MIPG has conceptualized these software features as multiple software development projects, and then coordinated their realization largely through the use of external software suppliers. This case study centers on the question: how can firms effectively coordinate such product development processes? Our analysis of case evidence and related literature suggests that such product bundling processes, when pursued through design supply chains (DSC), are more complex than is typical for the development of streams of either physical products or software products individually. We observe that DSC coordination transcends the requirements associated with traditional “stage‐gate” NPD processes used for physical product development. Managers in DSC settings face a tension inherent to distributed work: keeping internal and external development efforts separate to exploit the design capabilities within a network of software suppliers, while ensuring effective delivery of a stream of bundled products. Many managers face this coordination tension with little, if any, prior knowledge of how to create a streamlined and effective DSC. Our research indicates that these managers need to make a series of interrelated decisions: the number of suppliers to qualify and include in or exclude from the DSC; the basis for measuring and modifying the scope of the suppliers' work; the need to account for asymmetric cost structures and expertise across the DSC; the mechanisms for synchronizing development work across elements of the DSC; and the approaches for developing skills—both technical and administrative—that project managers need for utilizing in‐house competencies while acquiring and assimilating design know‐how from external development organizations. When managers take a flexible approach toward these decisions based on a modular set of software development projects, they can improve their NPD outcomes through technical and organizational experimentation and adjust their own resource deployment to best utilize the suppliers' capabilities within their DSC.     

A start-up embedding in three business network settings – A matter of resource combining

This paper focuses on how newly established technology-based start-up companies become part of the business landscape. In more detail, the aim of the paper is to analyse how a start-up becomes embedded through its networking behaviours in a business network. To approach this phenomenon, the theoretical frame of reference is based on the industrial network approach to industrial markets separating developing, producing and using settings. The business network settings are combined with networking behaviours consisting of both strong and weak ties. Importantly, for a start-up to become embedded through networking, resources of the start-up need to be combined with resources in the three business network settings. The paper relies on a case study methodology focusing on a start-up, founded at a technical university in Sweden, and its networking behaviours. The paper concludes that networking behaviours relying on strong ties are crucial to resource combining. However, the analysis also shows the importance of networking behaviours of weak ties, acquiring information and interaction to sensing new opportunities. The paper ends with managerial implications for start-up managers, pinpointing the need to work with both strong and weak ties as a platform to eventually become embedded in business networks.     

The contribution of external service inputs to the product development efforts of small manufacturing firms

This paper examines the contribution of external inputs to the innovation performance of small manufacturing firms (SMFs) in New York State. Survey data from a 4-sector sample of SMFs is presented. Particular attention is given to recent patterns of external spending on technological, management, and information services. The results suggest that innovation performance is enhanced by external sources of scientific, technical, and professional support. SMFs with well developed internal technical skills are found to exhibit above average spending on external help. Elaborate patterns of external knowledge acquisition are found to be particularly prevalent among innovative firms that derive a substantial proportion of their current sales from new or significantly improved products. The empirical results are compared with the findings reported by other North American and European studies. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implication of the survey results for regional development agencies and R&D managers.     

Formal versus informal knowledge networks in R&D: a case study using social network analysis

The existence of informal social networks within organizations has long been recognized as important and the unique working relationships among scientific and technical personnel have been well documented by both academics and practitioners. The growing interest in knowledge management practices has led to increased attention being paid to social network analysis as a tool for mapping the nature and membership of informal networks. However, despite the knowledge-intensive nature of research and development (R&D) activities, social network analyses of the R&D function remain relatively rare. This paper discusses the role of informal networks in the development, exchange and dissemination of knowledge within the R&D function. A case study using social network analysis is used to compare and contrast formal and informal knowledge networks within ICI. Marked differences between the informal organization and ICI's formal structures for knowledge exchange are revealed and a series of insights into the working habits of technical staff are presented. The implications for managers are clear: through a better understanding of the informal organization of R&D staff, they can more successfully capture and exploit new ideas; more efficiently disseminate information throughout the function; and more effectively understand the working habits and activities of employees.     

Owners on both sides of the deal: mergers and acquisitions and overlapping institutional ownership

Using a corporate governance lens, this study considers owners with a stake in both the acquiring and the target firms in the context of mergers and acquisitions. A possible agency problem arises with regard to monitoring implications as managers may be able to take advantage of compromised monitoring because overlapping owners may focus on the aggregate value for both the acquiring and the target firms and nonoverlapping owners may be interested only in the acquirer's side of the deal. The results suggest that when more owners overlap in their ownership of both the acquiring and target firms, the acquiring firms are more likely to experience decreased shareholder value through merger and acquisition deals. This effect, however, can be constrained by stronger board control. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diversification and top management team complementarity: is performance improved by merging similar or dissimilar teams?

This study examines the impact of complementary top management teams (defined as differences in functional backgrounds between the acquiring and acquired firm managers) on post-acquisition performance. Based on a sample of 147 acquisitions completed during 1986–88, we find that complementary backgrounds have a positive impact on postacquisition performance in both related and unrelated acquisitions. Another major finding is that complementarity is negatively related to top management team turnover among acquired managers, suggesting that differences in functional backgrounds are more easily integrated into the new organization. Finally, top management team turnover among acquired managers is negatively related to postacquisition performance. These findings highlight the importance of examining complementarity in terms of differences, and reinforce the notion that differences have the potential to create unique value for the organization. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is all communication created equal?: an investigation into the effects of communication mode on perceived information quality

Enhancing communication between functions is crucial to successful product development and management. Previous work in the product innovation management literature has made two implicit assumptions. First, that increasing the frequency of information dissemination from one function to the other always improves the perceived quality of the information received. The second assumption is that all types of interfunctional communication carry equal weight in the decision‐making process of the target of that communication. The current study develops a typology of communication modes, which suggests a rationale for why these assumptions may not be true. The empirical findings of the study, based on a survey of 504 nonmarketing managers indicate that the relationship between total communication frequency and perceived information quality (PIQ) is nonlinear. Specifically, the study finds that marketing managers can either communicate too little or too much with nonmarketing managers. If they interact too infrequently, they run the risk of not understanding the way to most effectively communicate market information. If they communicate too much, they may overload the manager with too much information and erode the overall quality of the information sent. In addition, some modes of communication are more effective in improving perceptions of the quality of market information. For instance, regular e‐mail sent by marketing managers seems to have no effect on perceived information quality. On the other hand, e‐mail sent with supporting documentation can have a strong positive effect on perceived information quality. Impromptu phone calls by marketing have less positive effects than scheduled phone calls. Interestingly, too much of the wrong types of communication actually seem to reduce perceptions of perceived information quality, and consequently the likelihood that market information will be used. The study also suggests that certain kinds of communication are better for manufacturing managers and others more effective in sharing information with R&D managers. For instance, disseminating information through written reports seems to reduce perceived information quality. This is particularly true for R&D managers. On the other hand too many meetings can reduce perceptions of PIQ, particularly on the part of manufacturing managers. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Mapping the Impact of Social Media for Innovation: The Role of Social Media in Explaining Innovation Performance in the PDMA Comparative Performance Assessment Study

Social media (SM) allow users to easily create, edit, or share content. The vast numbers of individuals that converge around sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter embody a rich source of external knowledge that could be utilized for new product development (NPD). Complementing other channels for open innovation (OI), SM can provide access to novel information about customer needs and technological solutions unknown to the firm. Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are considerable benefits from using SM during an innovation project, but empirical evidence is scarce. Contributing to the perspective of openness in search, a number of hypotheses propose how SM as a new channel for OI can contribute to firm performance. This model is tested using data from the PDMA Comparative Performance Assessment Study, identifying factors influencing the relationship between SM and NPD performance. The findings indicate that utilizing information from SM channels can lead to higher performance, but that this link is influenced by the formalization of a firm's NPD process. This study also finds that the ability of a firm to benefit from external search in SM strongly depends on complementary internal processes when organizing and conducting this activity. Furthermore, managers have to take care when utilizing information from SM channels in radical projects, as for this kind of project only a weak significant performance contribution of SM could be found.     

“To Own or Not to Own?” A Study on the Determinants and Consequences of Alternative Intellectual Property Rights Arrangements in Crowdsourcing for Innovation Contests

Firms are increasingly engaging in crowdsourcing for innovation to access new knowledge beyond their boundaries; however, scholars are no closer to understanding what guides seeker firms in deciding the level at which to acquire rights from solvers and the effect that this decision has on the performance of crowdsourcing contests. Integrating property rights theory and the problem‐solving perspective while leveraging exploratory interviews and observations, we build a theoretical framework to examine how specific attributes of the technical problem broadcast by firms affect the seekers’ choice between alternative intellectual property rights (IPR) arrangements that call for acquiring or licensing‐in IPR from external solvers (i.e., with high and low degrees of ownership, respectively). Each technical problem differs in the knowledge required to be solved as well as in the stage of development of the innovation process and seeker firms pay great attention to such characteristics when deciding about the IPR arrangement they choose for their contests. In addition, we analyze how this choice between acquiring and licensing‐in IPR, in turn, influences the performance of the contest. We empirically test our hypotheses analyzing a unique dataset of 729 challenges broadcast on the InnoCentive platform from 2010 to 2016. Our results indicate that challenges related to technical problems in later stages of the innovation process are positively related to the seekers’ preference toward IPR arrangements with a high level of ownership, while technical problems involving a higher number of knowledge domains are not. Moreover, we found that IPR arrangements with a high level of ownership negatively affect solvers’ participation and that IPR arrangement play a mediating role between the attributes of the technical problem and the solvers’ self‐selection process. Our paper contributes to the open innovation and crowdsourcing literature and provides practical implications for both managers and contest organizers.     

Exploring New Product Development Project Review Practices*

Most organizations use new product development (NPD) processes that consist of activities and review points. Activities basically solve problems and gather and produce information about the viability of successfully completing the project. Interspersed between the development activities are review points where project information is reviewed and a decision is made to either go on to the next stage of the process, stop it prior to completion, or hold it until more information is gathered and a better decision can be made. The review points are for controlling risk, prioritizing projects, and allocating resources, and the review team typically is cross‐disciplinary, comprising senior managers from marketing, finance, research and development (R&D), or manufacturing. Over the past four decades, research has greatly advanced knowledge with respect to NPD activities; however, much less is known about review practices. For this reason, the present paper reports findings of a study on NPD project review practices from 425 Product Development & Management Association (PDMA) members. The focus is on three decision points in the NPD process common across organizations (i.e., initial screen, prior to development and testing, and prior to commercialization). In this paper, the number of (1) review points used, (2) review criteria, (3) decision makers on review committees and the proficiency with which various evaluation criteria are used are compared across incremental and radical projects and across functional areas (i.e., marketing, technical, financial). Furthermore, the associations between these NPD review practices and new product performance are examined. Selected results show that more review points are used for radical NPD projects than incremental ones, and this is related to a relatively lower rate of survival for radical projects. The findings also show that the number of criteria used to evaluate NPD projects increases as NPD projects progress and that the number of review team members grows over the stages, too. Surprisingly, the results reveal that more criteria are used to evaluate incremental NPD projects than radical ones. As expected, managers appear to more proficiently use evaluation criteria when making project continuation/termination decisions for incremental projects; they use these criteria less proficiently during the development of radical projects, precisely when proficiency is most critical. At each review point, technical criteria were found to be the most frequently used type for incremental projects, and financial criteria were the most commonly used type for radical ones. Importantly, only review proficiency is significantly associated with performance; the number of review points, review team size, and number of review criteria are not associated with new product performance. Furthermore, only the coefficient for proficiently using marketing criteria was significantly related to new product program performance; the proficiency of using financial and technical information has no association with performance. Finally, across the three focal review points of the NPD process in this study, only the coefficient for proficiency at the first review point, (i.e., the initial screen) is significantly greater than zero. The results are discussed with respect to research and managerial practice, and future research directions are offered.     

The effect of board human capital on the performance of technical alliance investments

Despite boards of directors’ prominent involvement in strategic alliance (SA) decisions in practice and reports from news media, there is relatively little academic research exploring the board's value for a firm's technical SA investments involving a technical transfer or R&D, which are characterized by a high level of uncertainty, information asymmetry, and extreme complexity. Anchored in the resource dependence theory, this study aims to address this important issue by examining how board of directors contribute their human capital, in the form of relevant strategic experience, may mitigate the core challenges managers face when pursuing technical SAs and thereby influencing their outcomes. Our empirical results show that when outside directors hold more extensive alliance experience, they can better execute their consulting function and improve the firm's technical alliance performance. In addition, directors with experience specifically related to technical alliances also have a positive effect on performance. Last, we find that the impact of alliance experience on technical alliance performance is positively moderated by the size of directors’ prior affiliated companies and their share ownership in the focal firm.     

Covalence and ionic bonding in business-to-business relationships: Insights from chemistry

The paper examines business-to-business (B2B) relationships using the framework of the covalence-ionic bonding theory in chemistry as an analogy to help make soft phenomena and relationships in B2B marketing more understandable to engineers and scientists in organizations and to managers with scientific and technical backgrounds. In the tradition of cross-fertilization of various scientific fields, the authors propose that the covalence-ionic bonding theory may provide insights in determining the factors that contribute to the emergence of bilateral, unilateral, and market relationships. This study compares and contrasts interparticle bonding with ways of managing B2B relationships. Beyond sheer analogy of the two phenomena, an explanation of B2B relationships and decision-making mechanisms is proposed. In adapting this concept theoretically, the meaning of the original parameters in physical science is assigned a new meaning in the marketing context. Furthermore, the paper extends conceptually the predictive capabilities of chemistry theories to relational behaviors in marketing. Drawing from a resource-based view of the firm, complementarity of resources and dependence levels are postulated to have critical roles in business bonding. Appropriate propositions are advanced, along with implications for managers and researchers.     

Industrial buying behavior in Brazil

Many firms in less developed countries (LDCs) make little use of available information when they are considering investing in new production technology. A very small number of alternative suppliers are generally considered and supplier evaluation is often perfunctory. A number of questions concerning the information on alternative suppliers are raised and answers were sought in a field study carried out in Brazil. The factors that influence the degree of search by managers for information on alternatives included the relative cost of the equipment, the familiarity of the buyer with the technology, the cost of acquiring the information, the available resources of the company, and the buyer's expectations concerning quality and price, Implications for industrial marketing in LDCs are discussed and suggestions are made concerning the assistance that LDC governments can provide to firms that import production technology from the industrialized countries.