TY - JOUR
T1 - Aligning technical and business goals in industry-university collaborative r&d projects
T2 - A tale of two projects
AU - Johnson, William H.A.
AU - Johnston, David A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The two contrasting case studies suggest that business and technical goals and the competence necessary to achieve them need to be made explicit at the beginning of any collaborative project. Exhibit 3 depicts the process that management should utilize at the beginning of a project when the leverage exists to ensure a good alignment between technical and business goals. In a sense, this is the same process of due diligence used by management to minimize the risks of any major commercial activity. At the beginning, project discussions and negotiations need to reveal the specific goals of the project and the potential markets for commercialization. Firms should be able to discuss their organization's strategic plan over a planning horizon of 3 to 5 years. Ideally, the industry partners' planning horizon should encompass the scope of the university researcher's research grant or funding. The specific expertise of each partner also needs to be explicitly examined. For example, past product and process developments should be reviewed. The experience of personnel with past collaborations should be probed through meetings and interviews. A mismatch in goals and the competence to achieve them may be realigned by the inclusion of a third party to fill a gap. In Project B, potential licensees of the technology could have been involved earlier if MDA or their university partners had been able to detect that there was insufficient in-house commercial potential.
PY - 2001/3
Y1 - 2001/3
N2 - This article explores the problem of aligning business and technical goals in collaborative R&D projects. We examine two projects involving industry and university organizations with missions to develop intelligent systems technology. One is considered successful, the other problematic. A comparison of the two projects found that the competencies of the participants are critical if these collaborations are to progress to commercialization. More specifically, the business goals of the industry partner will strongly influence whether they cooperate fully with the university partner on technical goals. A framework to integrate business and technical goals is presented.
AB - This article explores the problem of aligning business and technical goals in collaborative R&D projects. We examine two projects involving industry and university organizations with missions to develop intelligent systems technology. One is considered successful, the other problematic. A comparison of the two projects found that the competencies of the participants are critical if these collaborations are to progress to commercialization. More specifically, the business goals of the industry partner will strongly influence whether they cooperate fully with the university partner on technical goals. A framework to integrate business and technical goals is presented.
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U2 - 10.1080/10429247.2001.11415102
DO - 10.1080/10429247.2001.11415102
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:1342310349
SN - 1042-9247
VL - 13
SP - 23
EP - 27
JO - EMJ - Engineering Management Journal
JF - EMJ - Engineering Management Journal
IS - 1
ER -