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Industrial use of public sector research in advanced technologies: a comparison of biotechnology and ceramics
Author(s) -
Senker Jacqueline,
Faulkner Wendy
Publication year - 1992
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/j.1467-9310.1992.tb00804.x
Subject(s) - dynamism , diversity (politics) , product (mathematics) , field (mathematics) , public sector , emerging technologies , business , variance (accounting) , linkage (software) , new product development , knowledge management , private sector , industrial organization , microbiology and biotechnology , marketing , computer science , economics , biology , political science , accounting , economic growth , mathematics , economy , quantum mechanics , biochemistry , physics , geometry , artificial intelligence , pure mathematics , gene , law
Industrial use of public sector research (PSR) is characterised by considerable diversity: both the nature and extent of linkage varies according to, amongst other factors, firm size, industrial sector and research field. The study reported here aims to understand better some of this diversity by comparing two fields—biotechnology and advanced ceramics. It employs a methodology which focuses on the precise character of scientific and technological inputs (STI) which companies seek and obtain during new product development. The results reveal significant similarities between the technologies: the importance to innovation of a synthesis between formal knowledge and tacit firm‐specific skills; and the reliance on PSR for both new knowledge and new research techniques and instruments. Variance in STI flows appears to be related to the particular character of new product development in the relevant industrial sectors; differences in the development and dynamism of the technologies; and in the availability of requisite expertise and knowledge in PSR.