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Organizing for technological collaborations: a managerial perspective
Author(s) -
Chiesa Vittorio,
Manzini Raffaella
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
randd management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.253
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1467-9310
pISSN - 0033-6807
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9310.00096
Subject(s) - knowledge management , typology , perspective (graphical) , task (project management) , context (archaeology) , computer science , empirical research , business , management science , process management , engineering , sociology , management , economics , artificial intelligence , paleontology , anthropology , biology , philosophy , epistemology
Researchers and practitioners have recently paid great attention to technological partnering. In this paper, the problem of choosing which organizational form the technological collaboration should take is carefully examined. The aim is to support the decision‐maker who, once it has been decided that a certain technology is to be acquired externally, has to identify the most appropriate mode for such an acquisition. This is not an easy task and is critical to the success of the collaboration. A framework is suggested to assist the decision‐maker, based upon the preliminary results of a qualitative empirical study. It is then applied to two case studies. The framework is articulated into three logical steps. First, the characteristics of different organizational forms of collaboration are analysed in terms of integration and formalization. Second, the company's requirements from a specific collaboration are defined in similar terms within the context of objective, content, partner typology. Third, the characteristics of the organizational form are matched with the company's specific requirements so as to identify the most appropriate organizational form for the collaboration.