ESSENTIALS OF INTERNATIONAL AND JOINT RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

The role of R&D has been gaining ground in industrial projects, especi ally with a focus on new product development and technologies and on i nternationalizing operations that can include manufacturing, project, and service in nature. With the growing importance of technologies suc h as CAD/CAM and IT in minimizing the time to reach market, the R&D pl ays a predominant role in improving the competitiveness of firms. Also , firms in recent years have internationalized operations to improve t heir overall business performance. The major problems for these firms are how to manage various R&D activities in international operations, and to formulate strategies for improving the effectiveness and qualit y of international and joint R&D projects. In this paper, and attempt has been made to discuss the management issues of international and jo int R&D projects the include: (i) the need for joint R&D projects; (ii ) the location of R&D facilities abroad; (iii) the selection of joint and international R&D projects; (iv) evaluating and monitoring joint a nd international R&D projects; (v) integration between the laboratorie s, corporate offices and interested divisions within each firm in a jo int R&D project; and (vi) managing international and joint R&D project s. Based on the literature survey, this paper presents strategies and methods to manage international R&D projects successfully. (C) 1997 El sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.