This paper addresses the problem commonly faced by R&D managers of funding redundant R&D tasks across several stages or components of a project. In the proposed methodology it is assumed that task outcomes are random, but that their distribution can be determined from engineering inputs. In...

We examine, in a strategic setting, the broad issue of how retail channel structures--retail monopoly versus retail duopoly--impact a manufacturer's optimal new product design, both in terms of engineering design specifications as well as manufacturer and retailer profits. Our strategic...

This study examined the relationship between communication and technological innovation. It focused on the patterns of technical communication among researchers and organizations to find out if these patterns had any effect on the success of technological innovation. The objectives were to: (1)...

This paper presents the first R and D price indexes based largely on actual prices and expenditures reported by firms. The results, based on a carefully designed sample of about 100 firms, show that the GNP deflator, which is used in the official government R and D statistics, has tended to...

For decades, policy makers in both the public and private sectors have been concerned with the question: What is the impact of changes in federal R and D support on company-financed R and D expenditures? This is one of the first empirical studies at a micro level of this topic. The results,...

Existing theoretical models of research and development (R&D) treat R&D as a single economic activity. Once R&D terminates, the only way for the activity to resume is by assuming some exogenous changes in the basic parameters of the model, e.g., the distribution of technological advances. In...

Empirical research on complementarity between organizational design decisions has traditionally focused on the question of existence of complementarity. In this paper, we take a broader approach to the issue, combining a "productivity" and an "adoption" approach, while including a search for...

Under an alternate assumption of the payoff function, we analyze Lee's dynamic game model of R&D rivalry. Both similarities and differences in the equilibrium results of the model are obtained. It is shown that both the reswitching property and the convergence property of R&D rivalry are robust...

Hiring new staff in R&D provides an important opportunity for a firm to acquire new technological knowledge. It also takes a considerable length of time before new R&D staff become fully integrated into the organization. This study compares the communication patterns of new and veteran R&D staff...

Over the past fifteen years, a number of studies have examined the determinants of firm R&D spending. These studies, however, almost invariably focus on the role of firm or external ownership characteristics in predicting R&D spending while overlooking the attributes of the top managers involved...