R&D management through network mapping: using the Internet to identify strategic network actors in cooperative research networks |
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Authors: | Tomas Hellströ m,Johan Eckerstein,& Alexander Helm |
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Affiliation: | Innovation Engineering and Management, Chalmers University of Technology, Aschebergsgatan 46, SE‐412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.;, Textile Solutions, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden. |
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Abstract: | Most R&D management techniques to date have emphasized the immediate organizational context or the internal structure and process of the R&D project. Recently however attempts have been made at situating R&D management in a wider context of inter‐organizational R&D activities. This paper presents the technique of R&D network mapping as a means of providing strategic intelligence to the R&D manager. The paper backgrounds this technique with a discussion of the general issue and significance of R&D networks. A methodology for R&D network mapping is then exemplified by outlining how a network database of cooperating projects and institutes in the telecom research sector was built by utilizing the World Wide Web. Finally a number of suggestions are made as to how and when network mapping should be applied in strategic R&D management. |
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