In-house R&D management development — strategy and implementation in a major government R&D agency

Abstract
The paper describes the experiences of CSIR in developing an in-house capability and implementation process of R&D management development programmes. The conceptual approach of the laboratory-based R&D management development programmes is described. Different phases in the process of implementation are presented along with the case studies of recent training programmes in two different laboratories. Some of the key aspects of the training programmes —- successful implementation, relationship with policy-making, and improving R&D performance have been examined. The role of international co-operation in R&D management development is suggested. The paper also discusses the future prospects of R&D management development programmes in the country.     

Sense-making and management in business networks — some observations, considerations, and a research agenda

Business networks are complex webs of interdependent exchange relationships within which companies and individual managers operate. They consist of manifold actors, complex interactions, as well as organizational structures and resource transformation processes. Business managers cannot just capitulate vis-à-vis this complexity. Making sense of complex business networks helps managers to understand their own position, as well as their available options for change. Similarly, research in the area of sense-making and management in business networks may help us understand how managers cope with the contextual complexity in business networks, and how managers construct the forms in which this complexity appears. This paper identifies six major research themes that need to be taken up in the future with regard to sense-making and management in business networks, and discusses some methodological issues to advance our knowledge in this area.     

The problem of unobservables in strategic management research

In this paper we argue that unobservable constructs lie at the core of a number of influential theories used in the strategic management literature—including agency theory, transaction cost theory, and the resource-based view of the firm. The debate over how best to deal with the problem of unobservables has raged in the philosophy of science literature for the best part of the current century. On the one hand, there are the positivists, who believe that theories containing unobservable constructs are only useful as tools for making predictions. According to positivists, such theories do not inform us about the deep structure of reality. On the other hand, there are the realists, who believe that our theories can give us knowledge about unobservables. Herein we review this debate, we argue for adopting a realist position, and we draw out the implications for strategic management research.     

Mobilizing crisis management networks — Entrepreneurial behavior in turbulent contexts

Severe socio-economic issues that threaten peace, life or wellbeing of humans in specific regions of the world cannot be solved by any single actor. Wide networks of political, business, governmental, non-profit and humanitarian organizations are to be involved to change existing practices. Despite conflicting interests and competing behavior, involved organizations need to act collectively to initiate the change of commonly accepted practices, i.e. institutions. This is the space in the present study for examining network mobilization as a collective means to change institutions. Our aim is to answer the question: How are networks mobilized in crisis management to initiate institutional change processes in socio-economically turbulent contexts? We provide a framework of network mobilization for institutional change built on the IMP rooted network mobilization research and institutional entrepreneurship discussion. The framework is reflected upon by means of insights from an interview-based case study with representatives of governmental and non-governmental organizations involved in worldwide humanitarian peace-building. We identify, firstly, incentivizing, reticent and adaptational behaviors of network mobilizers to utilize legitimacy and relationship sediments as mobilization enablers. Secondly, these behaviors help network mobilizers to overcome actor visibility and unpredictability as mobilization obstacles in turbulent contexts.     

Interdisciplinary research redefined: Multi-skill, problem-focussed research in the STRAP framework

A new framework for the study of interdisciplinary research processes is presented 'STRAP' emphasizes the combination of identifiable skills—substantive knowledge and techniques—that must come together to solve a complex research problem. This framework holds promise of better accommodating non-academic settings and yielding new insights into the management of complex R&D projects.     

Collaboration in R&D with universities and research centres: an empirical study of Spanish firms

Innovation is sometimes the result of collaboration between different agents with complementary resources. When companies make formal agreements to collaborate in R&D they do so with different types of organizations, such as their competitors, suppliers, and customers, or universities and research centres. This paper focuses on attempting to understand the reasons that lead companies to cooperate with universities and research centres and the characteristics of the relationship that this involves. The empirical study is based on a sample of 747 Spanish firms that took part in some type of collaborative R&D project between 1994 and 1996. Results indicate that cooperation with centres is a nation–wide phenomenon involving basic research, conducted under the sponsorship of different research support schemes promoted by central and regional administrations.     

Demand chain alignment competence — delivering value through product life cycle management

This paper endorses demand chain alignment as a competence that supports effective product life cycle (PLC) management. Demand chain alignment integrates the demand creation (historic domain of marketing) and demand fulfilment processes (domain of supply chain management), to develop and to deliver products that convey superior customer value while deploying resources efficiently. So far, the relationship between demand chain alignment and PLC management has only been addressed from an operations and demand/supply chain perspective, but not from a marketing perspective. Three research propositions, on the relationship between both concepts, are derived from a literature review and applied to a case study from a global player in the tobacco industry. The findings do not support the current view that the product life cycle is a market-oriented classification variable for demand chain strategies. Instead, demand chain alignment needs to link customer needs-based segments with the supply chain. Moreover, PLC management and demand chain alignment have a mutually reinforcing relationship, in which PLC management can facilitate the competence development, ensures a dynamic perspective and, at the same time, benefits from aligned demand creation and fulfilment processes. Based on the findings, a model integrating demand chain alignment and PLC management is proposed.     

Critical realism and constructivism in strategy research: toward a synthesis

We agree with Kwan and Tsang (2001) that critical realism represents an important point of epistemological departure from mainstream realism, and that it has the potential to inform strategy research. To that end, Kwan and Tsang's argument for a critical realist perspective is valid. There however exist substantial nontrivial differences between constructivism and critical realism. While critical realism contests some of the default assumptions of empiricism and realism which treat social systems as closed systems, it is still predicated upon an inherent order of things that is graspable by research. Constructivism instead focuses on the manner in which researchers constitute theories in the act of describing them. This important distinction makes constructivism far more of a departure from empiricism than critical realism, and therefore it has a different set of implications for strategy research. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Misused and missed use — Grounded Theory and Objective Hermeneutics as methods for research in industrial marketing

Since qualitative research methods have always found strong representation within sociology it is warranted to look at the sociological discussion in order to challenge and enrich qualitative research in industrial marketing. With this mission in mind, we discuss two sociological concepts that constitute influential schools within the German-speaking sociology of language community: Grounded Theory and Objective Hermeneutics. The analysis of their suitability for research in industrial marketing along several dimensions shows that while both methods target the reconstruction of meaning, they pursue different paths. Grounded Theory strives to discover higher-ranked social patterns, while Objective Hermeneutics is concerned with universal motives underlying a specific interaction.     

Redirecting research in business policy and strategy

Because business policy research has primarily been a series of inductive generalizations of case studies; theories have been typically ambiguous and untested, and have not progressed swiftly. Deductive theorizing, by contrast, yields clear, often non-obvious conclusions that can be debated effectively and generalized slowly; so realism of current models can be sacrificed for progress towards realistic future models. Deductive theorizing, with more attention to a game-theoretic definition of equilibrium and to recent ideas from economics, should be one new direction for policy research. Of course, these deductive models will inevitably draw their inspiration from the richness of careful observation and exhaustive checklist-making that are the hallmarks of induction. Specific avenues for new research are described, and the importance of teaching non-obvious theories is defended.     

ASIT—a problem solving strategy for education and eco-friendly sustainable design

There is growing recognition of the role teaching and learning experiences in technology education can contribute to Education for Sustainable Development. It appears, however, that in the Technology Education classroom little or no change has been achieved to the practice of designing and problem solving strategies oriented towards sustainable design. Brainstorming, Brainwriting, SCAMPER, Metaphoric Thinking, Outrageous Thinking, Mind Mapping and other problem-solving strategies used in the classroom could be suitable for eco-design, however, there appears to be little research data on their use. This paper examines and presents the ‘Advanced Systematic Inventive Thinking’ (ASIT) system as an eco-design strategy. ASIT is derived from a more complex engineering-based problem solving strategy known as TRIZ (the Russian acronym for The Theory of the Solution of Inventive Problems). Drawing on Stable’s (in press) call for new approaches to address sustainable design and achieve solutions through Technology Education, this article traces the history of TRIZ and the development of ASIT. It then argues that the ASIT strategy can be an effective methodology to be taught and used in the Technology Education classroom to solve problems in the ‘eco’ or sustainable design context. Several design scenarios have been included to illustrate how ASIT can deliver eco-design solutions to problems. These examples demonstrate the flexibility of the methodology and the diverse range of applications in which ASIT can be applied.     

Communication between R&D and its customers — a study of BT Laboratories

Aspects of communications between people working in R&D laboratories and their customers in the operating divisions of a company have been analysed, based on a series of in-depth interviews with people working in British Telecommunications plc (BT) Laboratories. Formal and informal communication channels interact to some extent, and their use is affected substantially by the type of customer for a particular project. Senior managers use informal networks to a greater extent than managers at lower levels, and are more likely to communicate about process rather than project matters.     

物业管理问题浅析

物业管理是现阶段房地产发展的重要内容之一，本就现阶段物业问题产生的根源，物业标准物业立法等方面进行分析。     

Designing and implementing the software factory — a case study from telecommunications

The paper reports the actions taken by a large Swedish information technology business to repair defects in the production of system software. Typical problems were late delivery, poor maintainability, lack of documentation. The approach taken to remove the defects consisted in introducing into software production the time- and specification-oriented culture of the factory.
Software writing had usually been delegated to more or less autonomous individuals inside R&D, with the result that expertize was often unrecorded, residing in those individuals' brains, procedures were poorly documented, cross-fertilization with other projects was minimal and lead times were long. The authors identify three reasons for this situation: management ignorance of how the design process operates; professional exclusiveness of design staff; reluctance of managers to exercise supervision over a design engineer's daily tasks.
The solution was to differentiate and rationally define jobs within the design function, set up a flat managerial structure overseeing a group of integrated teams each consisting of a senior system designer plus a junior designer leading four semi-skilled technicians, introduce a well-defined work-flow organization, make use of quality circles, install review procedures, undertake leadership and interpersonal skill training, and take measures to ensure effective communication in all directions.
The new approach has partly been successfully operated for several years. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the positive and negative lessons which have been learnt during the implementation.     

Multinational management strategy and ASEAN regional development

This paper reports the findings of a cross-sectional survey of 128 senior managers of multinational corporations in Singapore. Specifically an attempt was made to link the development of ASEAN regionalism to the nature of MNC management, and the strategic posture of the MNC in the ASEAN region. Based on the work of Nye (1971) the study was designed to investigate the extent to which perceptions of the viability of ASEAN were associated to corporate strategic action. The results suggested that the origin of the manager (international expatriate, ASEAN expatriate and local) is statistically associated with technical product decrease, merger growth and market/product decrease strategies. There was no support for the notion that this was due to positive perceptions of ASEAN regionalism.