A FRAMEWORK FAR MANAGING COMMUNICATION AT THE RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT MARKETING INTERFACE

Reducing the time to market is a top priority in most technology-based organizations. Ways of doing this frequently emphasize the need to pa y attention to the management of interfaces between functions and, in particular, between R&D and Marketing. Research has identified importa nt characteristics of this interface, but few studies have specificall y considered the influence of project type. In this paper we discuss a simple framework which focuses attention on the uncertainty dimension , and we then draw upon case examples from a research-intensive indust ry to identify characteristics of the R&D/Marketing interface which im pact on management and organization performance.