Title: How should we measure collaborative research and development performance?

Authors: Chen-Yen Yao, Feng-Shang Wu

Addresses: Graduate Institute of Technology and Innovation Management, National Chengchi University, No. 64, Chih-Nan Rd., Sec. 2, Taipei, Taiwan. ' Graduate Institute of Technology and Innovation Management, National Chengchi University, No. 64, Chih-Nan Rd., Sec. 2, Taipei, Taiwan

Abstract: With the rapid growth of information technologies, collaborative R&D has become an important issue. Previous research indicates that R&D collaboration is a means to accelerate the commercialisation of new technologies, create new business, and reduce risk. Numerous studies focus on the benefits, importance, risks and disadvantages of R&D cooperation. Yet, performance measurements of R&D collaboration have received only scarce attention. While implementing R&D collaboration, it is believed that managers will not be able to efficiently manage new product development without clear performance measurements. This study investigates the measurement of R&D collaboration performance. The performance measurement of collaborative R&D can be divided into five categories: knowledge, efficiency, resources, markets, and relationships. This study highlights the importance of the measurements of R&D collaboration, including measurements of input, process, output, and outcome. These findings lead to important implications for R&D collaboration in pursuit of accelerated innovation.

Keywords: research and development; R&D collaboration; collaborative R&D; systems modelling; performance measurement; accelerated innovation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLIC.2010.034374

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 2010 Vol.7 No.3/4, pp.360 - 373

Published online: 01 Aug 2010 *

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