bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Role of the Interaction between the User and the Manufacturer in Medical Equipment Innovation
Authors: Shaw Brian 
Published: May 2007

AbstractIt has been empirically observed that ‘under‐standing user need’ and ‘good internal and external communications’ are factors which discriminate strongly between commercially successful industrial product and process innovations and those that fail. The research reported in this paper examines how the innovating firm achieves desirable levels of these factors through multiple and continuous interaction with the user throughout the innovation process.In the sample of thirty‐four medical equipment innovations from eleven companies, twenty six (76 per cent) were developed through multiple and continuous interaction, resulting in twenty two (65 per cent) of these being successful.There appear to be two major reasons for this high level of interaction: (1) the requirement that any equipment that is to be potentially introduced into clinical use first needs clinical assessment and trial; and (2) the ‘state of the art’ clinical and diagnostic knowledge resides in the user. A special relationship is, therefore, needed between the clinical advisory and trial team on the one hand and the manufacturer on the other.The introduction to this paper reviews the findings of other work in the examination of the role of the user in the innovation process. Details of the sample, the methods of sample selection and classification of the data follow in section 2. The results of the research are summarised in section 3. These detail the nature of the medical equipment innovation process, identifying in particular the high level of interaction between the user, intermediaries and the manufacturer, resulting in good communications and understanding of user need. Section 4 attempts to determine the significance of these results for the effective management of innovation and suggest areas for further research.
Developing ‘Expert Systems’: Contributions from decision support systems and judgment analysis techniques
Authors: O'Brien W. R. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractIn considering the application of expert systems to the practice of R&D management, an age‐old conflict continues to plague those who would be innovators—proper consideration of the need to evaluate information both systematically and intuitively. Operations researchers/management scientists can, and often do, find that the results of their arduous efforts to develop sophisticated models, algorithms, and statistical validation techniques are less than satisfactory to decision‐makers. The reason, they are told, is that their systematic approach did not, and could not, give proper weight to the incommensurables.This paper discusses the concept that significant contributions could be made to lessen the occurrence of this dilemma by combining judgment analysis techniques with appropriately designed decision support systems. Current levels of performance/price ratios for computing systems are such that meaningful research can be undertaken to test the validity of this hypothesis. A research design is outlined and some recommendations presented toward that end.
A Role for Knowledge Engineering in R&D
Authors: Baker A. G. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe author distinguishes information from knowledge: information is notes, details, evidence, etc., knowledge is general laws, theories, understanding. Information Engineering (IE) is the provision of knowledge in usable form. Artificial Intelligence (Al) is the construction of computer systems that exhibit signs of intelligence. He asserts that Al has already provided methodologies that have advanced both IE and KE. The result is that IE and KE are now in the position to act as the pencil, paper and report material for R&D.Working knowledge of the languages is easily acquired and some useful empty shells are available, though the latter need more variety. Existing systems tend to be crude and may not address the right issues, e.g. emphasising probability rather than the risks associated with actions. Nevertheless the available tools are good enough to build useful expert systems for R&D.The potential of KE in education is being missed. In the author's opinion all university students should be taught to use the basic tools of knowledge engineering and apply them to their own disciplines.
Management of R&D for reduction of technological delay: a strategic viewpoint
Authors: Pelc Karol I. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe establishment and effective use of R&D potential is considered as a way to reduction of technological delay. On the basis of analysis of alternative starting positions of a follower on the technological scene the adequate trajectories for technological pursuit are drawn. Five strategies are indicated as the most typical ones. Illustration is given for respective strategies of pursuit based on S‐shaped performance development within given technological generation. Conditions and limitations are indicated in order to adapt general analysis to the practice of a company willing to overcome the technological gap and/or reduce the existing delay.
Managing for Creativity: back to basics in R&D
Authors: Glassman E. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe author addresses the question of how to train R&D managers to encourage scientists to work more creatively. His studies of the preferences of R&D scientists show that they actually enjoy creating. He asserts that in the interests of increasing enjoyment the role of managers is to remove blocks to creativity, such as negative criticism, lack of time, lack of resources and lack of freedom. On the other hand too much freedom can attenuate the creative urge and the manager must be prepared to offer guidance and supportive consultation.To help R&D managers towards an appropriate management style the author has devised and run creativity workshops structured around a new model that combines features of some well‐known srtuational leadership models. He gives examples of how leadership styles can be adapted to address the problem of developing and leading self‐directed and responsible subordinates.
Current and Future Uses of the Computer: Industrial R&D in the United States
Authors: Porter Alan L. , Rossini Frederick A. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis study of 158 organizations sought to depict current uses of computers in R&D. A survey of senior R&D management by the Industrial Research Institute identifies a number of salient features. Routine computer use is becoming a characteristic of scientists, engineers, and managers. Yet characteristics of usage differ markedly by size of R&D unit and by line of business. Moreover, patterns of responses suggest on‐going changes toward the time when R&D will be strongly coloured by the context of an integrated, intelligent computer environment. This implies new roles and skill requirements for R&D managers, professionals, and support staff.
Organizational structure and R&D efficiency
Authors: Link Albert N. , Zmud Robert W. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper compares innovative efficiency as proxied by a measure of R&D efficiency, between firms with organic and mechanistic R&D organizational structures. The results of the study support the hypotheses that organic structures experience greater efficiency in basic research, process‐related R&D and long‐term R&D activities than do mechanistic structures.
Bibliometric Techniques for Monitoring Performance in Technologically Oriented Research: The Case of Integrated Optics
Authors: Hicks Diana , Martin Ben R. , Irvine John 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper outlines a low‐cost manual‐scanning approach for monitoring national and organi‐ zational research performance using a range of publication and citation indicators. We present the results of a case‐study on integrated optics, a subfield of optical physics with potential industrial importance in that it may lead to the development of optical analogues of integrated circuits. It is argued that the assessment approach adopted may be of value in R&D management and strategic planning for both companies and government research‐funding agencies.
Firm and industry characteristics influencing publications of scientists in large American companies
Authors: Halperin Michael R. , Chakrabarti Alok K. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis study examines the relationship between the volume of scientific and technical publications (papers) produced by industrial scientists, and the characteristics of the corporations in which they work. Specifically, the study examines 1. the relationship between several key financial characteristics of U. S. industrial firms and the production of scientific papers; 2. the relationship between the amount of scientific papers published by industrial scientists and the publication of patents; 3. the relationship between the quality of the scientists employed by U. S. industrial firms and the firms' output of papers and patents. Data from 225 U. S. corporations were collected for the years 1975 through 1983. The corporations chosen for the study all have a history of consistent R and D expenditure. There is a substantial correlation between patenting and the publication of scientific papers although controlling for the size of the corporation reduces the correlation. Large firms, as measured by their annual sales, produce proportionately fewer scientific papers than do small firms. The number of elite scientists in a corporation is more highly correlated with the publication of scientific papers than with patenting.
The optimal degree of diversification in ‘high‐tech’ firms*
Authors: Plaut Steven E. , Ilan Yael 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe literature on innovation and investment contains two contradictory strands. One emphasizes investment diversification as a form of risk reduction. The other emphasizes specialization as a way to exploit economies of scale and learning effects. The literature is surveyed and a simple model of optimal specialization is developed to clarify the issue. Comparative static results are presented.
Comparative perspectives on research dynamics and performance: A view from the periphery
Authors: Stolte‐Heiskanen Veronica 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe author takes a global look at the entire world of R and D, dividing it into the Centre (the large countries of the developed world) and the Periphery (small developed countries and the Third World). Her objective is to help to formulate a programme of studies to make R and D carried out in the Periphery more relevant to its needs.Her view is that (a) too many past studies of R and D productivity have been carried out by the Centre on the Centre and (b) too much effort has been expended on measuring outputs and too little on the inputs that could be controlled to produce more output. In the paper she looks at the three major clusters of controllable input factors that could influence R and D productivity. The clusters considered are those pertaining to research groups, the ‘atoms’ of R and D (size, age, composition, management style and task diversity), to the institutional setting (organizational form, institutional goals etc.) and to the general socio‐cultural environment of the country concerned. In each case she questions whether their effects on productivity, mainly derived from studies of R and D at the Centre is likely to apply in the same way to R and D carried out at the Periphery.The author remarks that the factors listed in the paper are not exhaustive and in any case their interrelationships would also need to be discovered. The paper contains a large number of so far unanswered questions about input/ output relations in the context of the periphery that could provide starting points for research.
Instruments of adjustment in recession: The case of R and D personnel
Authors: Sullivan T. , Hogge B. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper examines the implications for the management of the stock of labour under recession conditions. First a labour market model which contrasts that model with a ‘normal’ commodity market is developed. A central feature of a labour market model is that it is characterised by wage fix‐employment flex policies due in no small part to the ‘peculiarities’ of the commodity labour. Secondly, we examine how following falls in revenues, wages and employment are brought back into alignment with product market conditions. We find that policies on the management of labour under these conditions are product market driven but with attention being paid to both objective business variables, such as markets, products, revenues, labour costs and productivity and more subjective elements such as the firm's ‘reputation’ as a ‘good’ employer. These two possibly conflicting elements are reconciled by policies using ‘instruments of adjustment’ to reduce and restructure the labour stock while holding wage levels relatively fixed.
Information and Communication Behaviour of Women Space Technologists
Authors: Sridhar M. S. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe author has carried out a survey to inquire into the information and communication behaviour of men and women space technologists in India. Members of a population of about 800, of whom about 70 were women, were questioned about their information seeking and transmission activities. The survey showed that on almost all aspects, including time spent on collecting information, number of contacts outside the organization, consultations with library staff, dependence on informal sources of information and so on, there were not significant differences between the sexes. The only important differences were that women used formal sources such as library documentation and consulted internal sources of information more than did men, and were much less likely to be gatekeepers. But women space technologists appeared to have low information potential in the sociometric analysis of informal contacts of the respondents as they were less likely to be chosen for discussion, advice and information by respondents than were men space technologists.
R&D professionals' reactions to the career plateau: Mediating effects of supervisory behaviours and job characteristics
Authors: Gerpott Torsten J. , Domsch Michel 
Published: May 2007

AbstractA career plateau is defined as that point in a person's career which represents a cessation of both lateral and upward movement between jobs. The present study elaborates the idea that a fuller understanding of individual reactions to the career plateau can be achieved by considering supervisory behaviours and job characteristics as variables transmitting the influence of career plateauing to behavioural and attitudinal reaction measures. It is suggested that supervisors invest less attention and resources in plateaued employees and that plateaued employees are assigned to jobs with less motivating potential. Analyses of questionnaire data from 618 R&D professionals in 11 large West German firms show that there are significant differences between plateaued R&D professionals (i. e. those subjects with at least 10 years of job tenure) and a nonplateaued comparison group (i. e. respondents with not more than 6 years of job tenure) controlling for age as a potential confounding influence. Specifically, plateaued R&D professionals indicate less working hours, to be less satisfied with their career and their work, to be less involved in their work, and they tend to produce less publications and patents per year of company tenure. Furthermore, considerable differences are found between one's immediate supervisor's behaviours (e. g. provision of job‐related performance feedback) reported by plateaued professionals and their non‐plateaued counterparts. However, even after controlling the mediating effects of supervisory behaviours and job characteristics variables plateauing still had a small, but significant detrimental effect on 3 out of 6 reaction measures. Implications are outlined for organizational career management activities.
Models for developing managers
Authors: Sutton David C. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractA 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.
The development of the concept of communication competence to evaluate industrial firms' performance in cross‐cultural interactions
Authors: Hoiden Nigel J. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractIn today's world industrial firms strive to achieve technical closeness in a multiplicity of cross‐cultural environments. As yet, the management sciences appear not to have created concepts and procedures that have both heuristic merit and the potential to serve as a practical tool for describing and facilitating cross‐cultural communication at the personal and organizational levels. This paper, drawing on the detailed evidence of five industrial firms' interactions (buying, selling, conducting market research and technical fact‐finding) in and with France, the U. S. S. R., and Japan, will advance the concept of communication competence, an organizational capacity to interpret, and anticipate changes in, foreign sociocultural environments (Holden's Ph. D thesis, January 1986). It will be demonstrated that the concept of communication competence can be developed as a multi‐dimensional device for assessing firms' capacities to sustain technical closeness and making evaluative comparisons of their performance.
Product Recycle patterns for new industrial products
Authors: Easingwood Christopher J. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractA diffusion model that is capable of tracking very different diffusion paths is presented. Based on this model, nine different diffusion classes are proposed. Actual data for a number of products confirm that the full flexibility of the proposed approach is necessary. That is, most classes are represented by at least one product. Possible explanations of class member‐ship are proposed. More work is needed to confirm/refute these explanations.
International management of R&D: The Swedish Experience
Authors: Håkanson Lars , Zander Udo 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper summarizes the results of in‐depth case studies of international R&D management in four Swedish multinational corporations. The results suggest that foreign volumes and shares of R&D expenditures are rapidly increasing. Through a rapidly increasing number of foreign acquisitions, foreign R&D laboratories have been added. As part of international rationalization of production, foreign units have been given global product mandates with responsibility both for manufacturing and R&D. In maturing foreign subsidiaries, routine technical activities have often evolved into proper R&D. Tight labour market conditions for engineers in Sweden have made it increasingly necessary to exploit existing technical capacity, regardless of location.Concurrently, companies face new pressures for international coordination and control of R&D. Coordination is required to reduce product differentiation, to facilitate technology transfer and to ensure the technical and market compatibility of products and components developed at different locations but sold as part of total systems. Drawing on the experience in the four investigated companies, the paper discusses how systems and procedures can be developed to meet the need for coordinated international R&D management.
A Dutch test with the NewProd‐Model
Authors: Bronnenberg J. J. A. M. , Van Engelen M. L. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe paper contains a report of a test of Cooper's NewProd model for predicting success and failure of product development projects. Based on Canadian data, the model has been shown to make predictions which are 84% correct. Having reservations on the reliability and validity of the model on theoretical grounds, we set out to test it using data collected in the Netherlands.Following Cooper's methodology, we selected 19 projects, which had already been marketed and of which 9 were clearcut successes and 10 clearcut failures. We also studied 9 additional projects, which had not yet been commercialised, as the basis for a future a priori test. The projects were given a product score according to Cooper's criteria, and predictions compared with the actual experience. Eightyfour percent were correctly classified, as in Cooper's work. From a practical point of view however the variance was too large to allow the predictions from NewProd to be used with confidence to predict outcomes unless they are clearcut.We believe that the drawback of the methodology is that the product score is a simple combination of the various factors involved. No allowance is made for the possibility that one factor alone might be responsible for failure. We have therefore introduced the concept of a threshold value for each factor. A project for which any factor falls below this value will be deemed a failure. Based on a very limited sample of 19 cases an improvement of reliability was made to 95% of 18 out of 19 products correctly classified. The NewProd concept so modified is being applied to the sample of 9 as yet uncompleted projects, and its predictions will eventually be compared with actual outcomes.
R&D Project Selection Strategy: an empirical study in Spain
Authors: Sanchez Angel Martinez 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe author has investigated the role played by project selection methods in defining a firm's technology strategy, as exemplified by a sample of innovative companies in Spain. The information was collected by a combination of questionnaire and interview with key personnel.The author was able to classify strategies into four groups: (1) a planning strategy, essentially a negotiation comprising top‐down and bottom‐up elements; (2) an economic strategy in which a large number of economic criteria set in advance by top management are used to evaluate projects; (3) a market strategy in which R&D is seen more or less as an adjunct to the Marketing function, which defines the products needed and negotiates the programme with top management; (4) a technical strategy, used in circumstances in which technological innovation is essential and in which, therefore, economic factors take a subsidiary place.The author's data show that in companies operating a planning strategy project selection methods of various, perhaps ad hoc kinds play a key role in reaching a company consensus. For those using an economic strategy the selection criteria are predetermined and selection methods inflexible. In the case of the market strategy, evaluation methods are used solely to help to rank projects prior to selection. Firms employing the technical strategy clearly base their decisions purely on the technical merit of the various projects put up for implementation.The paper includes information on the types of selection method used, broken down by company size and other similar criteria, and comparisons with practice in the USA, France and some other countries.