bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The economics of industrial R & D
Authors: Rowlands D. G. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe relationship between research and commercial operation is examined in terms of production using a simple Cobb‐Douglas production function, where output is expressed in terms of inputs of labour, capital and‘technical progress’. The model was tested in a single company environment by multiple regression analysis of output as the dependent variable on various measures of research, labour and capital. The results of the regression analysis are in full agreement with the model as outlined and the assumption that output is dependent simultaneously on labour, capital and the cumulative research investment.
The technological gatekeeper and policies for national and international transfer of information
Authors: Cooney S. , Allen T. J. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractIn this paper, the main conclusions of the research which has demonstrated the significance of person to person communication in technical information transfer are summarized. Some of the major international and national policy statements and projects on ‘STI’ are then reviewed in the light of these findings. Finally, the implications of the comparison are discussed and suggestions put forward as to how the agencies concerned and the Information Profession may take active measures to further develop the informal channels, shown to be the most effective of those available.
The engineering department matrix organization
Authors: Videlo D. A. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper describes the development of an organizational structure within the Engineering Department of the Sperry Gyroscope organization. A matrix form of structure has been operating in the last 15 years or so in various forms. However, the power balance between the project and function teams has been carefully changed over this period to meet changing circumstances, it is accepted that this structure may not necessarily be suitable for all time, but its flexibility has proved of tremendous value in enabling the Engineering Department to perform effectively.
European views on the transfer of technology from military to civil uses
Authors: Udis B. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractA study was conducted in seven major industrialized countries of Western Europe aimed at throwing new light on problems of military to civilian transfer of resources (Udis, 1975). While a variety of subjects are discussed in the full report, the section on technology transfer has been abstracted for this paper. The basic interview was designed for organizations forced to adjust to a reduced level of dependence on military expenditures and the consequent need to develop civil market alternatives. The field work consisted of a series of interviews with industrial executives, government officials, university professors and journalists.
The selection and evaluation of word processing equipment in a research organization
Authors: Barradell P. , Bennett F. J. , Bentham S. , Clarke J. G. A. , Mills P. 
Published: May 2007

Abstract. This paper is concerned with the selection, evaluation and subsequent implementation of shared logic word processing equipment in an R & D environment. The authors formed a multidisciplinary team in order to carry out the project from the stages of problem definition to final evaluation in all its aspects of the chosen equipment.
Managerial problems of university‐industry interaction
Authors: Pelc Karol I. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractIn post‐war Poland, universities and higher schools of technology have had to take over not only the role of centres of intellectual activity, but also of animators of technological and economic life. Universities employ more than 60|X% of the total scientific staff of the country, so that the issue of university‐industry cooperation is of major importance to them. Despite obstacles caused by the different needs of the two partners, there are many motives for both sides to cooperate, and the various forms the contract can take in practice are described. Design of the coupling is analysed in terms of a two‐cycle model of technology transfer, and ways of strengthening the coupling between the two are elaborated. The extent of the university's involvement in research with industrial application is described. Specific measures need to be taken by university boards of management to ensure that this kind of work does not lead to undesirable limitation of scientific freedom in the choice of objects of research, and that the research profile is compatible with the educational programme of the university.
Weighted individual perceptions and the productivity and innovativeness of research groups
Authors: Manners G. E. , Stahl M. J. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe output of Research and Development (R & D) work groups was characterized along the two dimensions of productivity and innovativeness. Differential weightings of individual perceptions were used to arrive at a group score of those perceptions. Perceived leader behavior and work group differentiation were related to both output measures.
Creativity and organization in pharmaceuticals R & D
Authors: Osbaldeston M. D. , Cox J. S. G. , Loveday D. E. E. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper reviews the results of a study carried out in conjunction with the Chemical and Allied Products Industry Training Board to link internal environmental factors of an organization to measures of creativity in R & D in the pharmaceutical industry. The methods adopted have been described and the preliminary results of the pilot study carried out in one organization in order to develop, refine and test methodology. It is hoped in the future that the techniques developed will be extended to provide comparisons in other organizations in the pharmaceutical industry in order to draw firm conclusions. The paper also sets the study in the context of a brief historical review of other studies in this field. It is concluded that the investigation has evolved a methodology capable of identifying and measuring some facilitatory and inhibitory influences on creativity in an R & D environment, allowing comparisons to be drawn between environmental influences in different parts of the same organization.
Organizational climate factors and the evaluation of technical ideas
Authors: Manners G. E. , Barth R. T. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractBased on data obtained from 359 idea evaluators, canonical correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between several organizational factors and a set of criteria used in the evaluation of technical ideas. In contrast to other studies, it was found that organizational factors—assessed in terms of organizational climate—could be explained in terms of two dimensions: organizational clarity and risk. Technical evaluation criteria could be explained in terms of professional self‐gratification and organizational responsibility. In light of the multivariate relationship among the two sets of factors, a number of organizational design implications are outlined.
Academic interdisciplinary research: problems and practice1
Authors: Birnbaum P. H. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractEvaluation of the research management literature identified key issues relevant for managing academic interdisciplinary research projects. Based on these issues, a nationwide survey of American academic interdisciplinary research projects was made to determine the extent and form of these literature issues in practice. Similarities and differences between literature claims and research findings are presented, together with comparisons between academic interdisciplinary research and other forms of group research.
Problem–solving and idea‐generation in R&D: the role of informal communication
Authors: Nagpaul P.S. , Pruthi S. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper is a part of the study on the pattern and role of communication in small R&D projects which was carried out on two ongoing projects in one of the national laboratories of C.S.I.R. Here an attempt has been made: (i) to examine the types of problems solved and ideas generated by the scientists; (ii) to investigate the role of formal and informal communication channels actually used for problem‐solving and idea‐generation and the association, if any, between the type of channel used and the type of problem solved or idea generated; and (iii) to study the role of technological gatekeepers in the processes of idea‐generation and problem‐solving.
Comparison of patterns of research effectiveness and output and their stability across six countries*
Authors: Stolte‐Heiskanen Veronica , Visart Nicole , Gainche Cinda 
Published: May 2007

SummaryThe focus of the study is an exploration of the stability of relationships between characteristics of research groups and various dimensions of the effectiveness of research activities across different national settings. The analysis is based on data collected by a Unesco coordinated international research team in six European countries. Data were collected by means of a survey of research groups engaged in research and experimental development activities in a variety of scientific disciplines, primarily in the natural and technological sciences. The total sample consists of 1,222 research groups. From a wide variety of data a set of indices describing the age, patterns of communication, management, diversity, morale and inter‐personal relations in the unit, etc., were selected on the basis of observed correlations to measures of effectiveness in the samples of each of the six countries. By means of a residualization procedure the indices were adjusted for the effect of the type of institution end scientific field of research groups to eliminate differences with respect to these two structural dimensions in the samples of the different countries. Stepwise regression analyses were performed separately for each country to explore the relationships of the ‘adjusted’ indices to seven different measures of effectiveness. The common pattern of relationships of certain indices to give effectiveness measures is described and discussed. The recurrent relevance of certain variables in the individual countries across a variety of effectiveness measures is analysed. On the basis of these analyses a few ‘universal’ indices are isolated such as quality of research planning, communication with users of the research results, and the research morale as perceived by unit heads and scientists. These seem to have consistent, systematic and additive relationships across countries to most of the specific dimensions of research group effectiveness. In conclusion the theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
Dual ladders in research: a paradoxical organizational fix
Authors: Gunz H. P. 
Published: May 2007

SummaryDual ladders have long been advocated as valuable devices for handling career problems in technical organizations, although equally their difficulties have been emphasized. Of 33 U.K. R & D organizations included in a recent survey, 60% had dual ladders, although they were more common in some industries than others. Two main conclusions came from the survey. Firstly, R & D organizations do not form a homogeneous group for which dual ladders are either good or bad: some organizations have cultures more receptive to them than others. Secondly, using dual ladders to solve the career problems of more than a very small minority of potential beneficiaries is very likely to defeat the aims of the system. It is difficult to see a way out of this paradox while career rewards remain valued according to their scarcity.
Book Reviews
Authors: Wilkinson A. , BUTLER J. , AITKEN R. S. , AITKEN R. S. , PARKER R. C. , POWELL N. K. 
Published: May 2007

Pollution Prevention PaysIndustrial Innovation‐Technology, Policy, DigusionTechnical Change and EmploymentUnemploymentIndustrial New Product Development‐A Manual for the 1980'sThe Heart of the Enterprise
Industrial R & D and the British economic problem
Authors: Pavitt Keith 
Published: May 2007

AbstractBritain's poor industrial and economic performance over at least the past fifteen years is closely related to a national pattern of R & D activities that—by comparison with our main competitors—has been insufficient in volume, heavily concentrated in sectors of relatively minor industrial significance, and inadequately coupled to the problems and possibilities of production and the market. Reversing what in the 1970s was a strongly downward trend in British R & D and other innovative activities will require, amongst other things, more professionalism and skills in British engineering and management, and deliberate long‐term strategies in industry and government to develop products, processes and markets that enable British industry to compete on the basis of quality and skills rather than low wages.
The components of risk in new product development: Project New Prod
Authors: Cooper Robert G. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractAlthough new product development is one of the riskiest activities of a modern corporation, relatively little account is taken of risk measurement in the R & D project selection literature. The existing consensus is that risk is measured by some combination of the total amounts at stake and the uncertainties of the situation. The paper describes a project aimed at more exactly identifying and defining the components of risk as perceived by a decision‐maker within a firm undertaking new product ventures. The project is based on data from a study of the behaviour of 103 firms and 197 ventures.The results show broadly that managers perceive risk to be highest when the product shows least synergy with the firm's current business. In contrast, the possibility of reducing uncertainty components of risk through information‐seeking seems to be of little account in risk perception. The author concludes from this that decision‐makers are much more influenced by factors that control the amounts at stake (in general, the less the synergy the greater the resources needed to back a new product entry) than by uncertainty as to the outcome. The latter must constitute an important element of risk in reality. Its neglect may be because managers find they can deal conceptually more easily with concrete matters like the amount at stake than with the intangibles of uncertainty reduction. This may explain why many firms fail to integrate information into their new product development process.
Ten years of R & D Management‐some major themes: the role of communication in R & D
Authors: Epton S. R. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractFifteen papers on the role of interpersonal communication in R & D appearing in the first ten volumes of R & D Management are reviewed. The conclusions reached by the various contributors on three major themes are compared. The themes are: the relation of communication to performance, the effect of physical separation on communication rate, and the role of communication stars in information transfer. A clear division of opinion emerges on the extent to which managers can impose or create effective communication patterns as distinct from merely being able to stimulate those that already exist. Differences in experimental approach and the existence of methodological gaps prevent any judgment being made between the two viewpoints based only on the evidence in the papers under review.
The role of the process plant contracting industry in technological change
Authors: Jones E. G. , Ball D. F. , Cockerill T. A. J. 
Published: May 2007

The function of process plant contractors is to design and engineer plants, supply process technology, procure plant equipment and supervise the construction and commissioning of plant for producers in various process industries such as chemicals, gas and steel. As such they play a major part in the process of capital formation and are one of the major inputs for facilitating technological change.This paper describes recent attempts to identify the factors which determine contractor involvement and use this information as a basis for analysing the part contractors will play in developing trchnologies such as coal conversion and biotechnology.
The development from prototype construction to workshop production of an advanced underground locomotive: A case study
Authors: Dale B. G. , Winderbank J. M. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThis paper reports on the problems encountered and their subsequent solution during the development and construction of an advanced locomotive from prototype to full production assembly. A fleet of these locomotives are to work in the UK National Coal Board's (NCB) Selby coalfield. In order to ensure that all the information was accurately recorded and could be applied to a reasonably precise point in the development process, visits were made to the company at intervals of about two weeks. In developing products of this nature a strongproblem solving capacity is a necessity and in the main it was found that engineering and theoretical design problems were solved quickly and once solved did not recur on subsequent units. Strong links between specialist suppliers and customers are vital, since components will often be used in unfamiliar applications and the customer may have to spend time carrying out applied development of suppliers' components. The development and production of the locomotive would have been aided by the NCB providing more accurate specifications, giving an indication of future volume requirements and being better prepared to site test the prototype after its delivery.
A study of co‐authorship and collaborative research among Indian space technologists
Authors: Sridhar M. S. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe paper sets out the methodology adapted and the sample studied, analyses the productivity of space scientists and engineers in terms of number of papers published with full as well as fractional authorship credits, discusses in detail the pattern of collaboration of space technologists in publishing papers, and lastly, identifies nonintersecting informal communication groups and ‘communication stars’ based on collaboration.
Strategies of Product and Process Innovation: A Loglinear Analysis
Authors: Calantone Roger J. , Di Benedetto C. Anthony , Meloche Martin S. 
Published: May 2007

AbstractUtterback and Abernathy (1975) developed a dynamic innovation model to explain the patterns of product and process innovation and to show which types of innovation would be most strategically appropriate for firms with particular objectives. In this paper the relation‐ships between type and/or source of innovation and a number of firm‐characteristic variables are examined. Loglinear regression is employed to determine the extent of the postulated relationships in a set of actual industry data on product innovation. The loglinear model provided results which were highly consistent with predictions made on the basis of previous research into product and process innovation.
Gaining added value from centres of excellence in the UK medical equipment industry
Authors: Shaw Brian 
Published: May 2007

AbstractNew technologies and the transfer, exchange and pooling of existing technologies are impacting, at the strategic level. Research on joint activities has emphasised the industry sectoral differences and the need for more in‐depth analysis at these levels. This study of eleven companies' joint activities with government research institutes, university medical schools and other companies, in developing thirty‐four medical equipment innovations, details the mechanisms by which the expected added value from joint activities is realised.The manufacturers gained added value by:1. Appropriating user knowledge to them‐selves2. Transferring costs to the users3. Increasing private returns through co‐operation with the user in gaining market penetration4. Diffusion of costs and the capturing of benefits through intermediary‐manufactureruser interactions5. The coupling of ‘outside product champions’ to ‘inside product champions’.
Project team aging and performance: The roles of project and functional managers
Authors: Allen Thomas , Katz Ralph , Grady J. J. , Slavin Neil 
Published: May 2007

AbstractThe authors have explored further the effect of the tenure of an R&D group (that is, the length of time in which it has existed) on its performance. Several studies have shown that groups tend to reach a peak of productivity after a few years and decline thereafter. However, it seems that not all teams so decline and the aim of the authors' study reported in this paper was to see what could be learned from those groups that continued to be successful.They therefore studied a sample of 181 teams comprising 2000 subjects drawn from a wide variety of R&D organizations. Their objectives were first to pick out those teams that remained effective and second, to discover the secret of their success. Group performances were assessed subjectively by senior members of each organization. Group tenures were measured by calculating the average time each individual member had spent in the group. Further information was obtained from questionnaires completed by participants.Analysis of the results led to the surprising conclusion that there was no evidence whatever for the previously reported curvilinear relationship between performance and tenure. Nevertheless, some long‐tenured teams per‐formed much better than others and better than newly‐formed teams, for which the authors have sought an explanation.From information deduced from the questionnaires they conclude that the crucial factor is the extent to which the functional manager (department head) as distinct from the project manager nurtures individual researchers, especially in ensuring that they keep abreast of progress in relevant areas of expertise. The role of the project manager on the other hand is to maintain connection between the team and institutional objectives.
Technology and strategic management progress and future directions
Authors: McGee John , Thomas Howard 
Published: May 2007

AbstractStrategic management researchers are showing increasing interest in the interface technology and strategic management. This paper provides a literature review focussing on theory development and empirical examination. It also indicates some of the more common strategic responses and prescriptions which have been proposed to manage technology. A set of issues for guiding future research are suggested and research designs for handling some of these research hypotheses are proposed.