Analysis of Research Project Launching at Industrial R&D

在全球竞争的环境中，产学研机构面临着挑战。经理们倾向于将资源转移到有明确市场目标的研究上。然而，这种方法破坏了研究组织创建新功能和产品的使命。这项研究从美国和日本的两家公司的案例研究中发现，研究人员从一开始就调查和构建市场机会，并在整个技术研究过程中根据他们对市场机会的不断变化的理解灵活地改变研究过程。这种方法有助于克服市场导向(例如，应用研究和需求拉动)和技术导向(例如，基础研究和技术推动)的典型二分法。与其使用投资组合方法将资源划分为两种对立的研究类型以平衡风险，我们可以鼓励研究人员在整个研究过程中同时考虑市场和技术视角。

Industrial research organizations are facing challenges in the global competitive environment. Managers tend to shift resources to research with a clear market objective. This approach, however, undermines the research organization's mission to create new capabilities and offerings. This study revealed from case studies at two companies in the U.S. and in Japan that researchers investigated and constructed market opportunities from the very beginning and throughout the technological research and flexibly altered the course of research based on their evolving understanding of market opportunities. This approach helps overcome the typical dichotomy of market- (e.g., applied research and demand-pull) and technology-orientation (e.g., basic research and technology-push). Instead of using a portfolio approach to separate resources into two opposing types of research to balance risks, we can encourage researchers to take both market and technological perspective throughout their research.