Strategic Business Decisions on Research and Development (R&D)
Industrial research can have one of two fundamental orientations. First orientation is the scientific research, which is concerned with generating new concepts that may or may not have product applications. The second orientation is the commercial development – which can take several forms, but is essentially product, as opposed to concept, oriented. Thus commercial development is a more pragmatic and market-centered form of R&D effort than scientific research.
Research and Development strategy has four primary elements: R&D goals, extent of integration of the R&D function, amount of market coupling desired, and size of the budget.
1. Research and Development GoalsGoals are needed to specify the purpose of R&D is used as part of product or market development or market-penetration business-level strategies, the firm’s desired competitive position can largely determine the amount and type of R&D needed.… Read the rest