STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS OF THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT AND M-AND-S

This paper describes some of the complex relationships that exist betw een R&D (research and development) and M&S (marketing and sales). Fact ors impacting R&D and M&S are analysed such as company size, company a ge, wishes for changes in the individual company, etc. Seven propositi ons are presented. One specific finding from the study is that, for di fferent product life cycles (PLCs), R&D and M&S often counteract so th at when R&D spendings are allowed to increase, M&S spendings are reduc ed and vice versa. Management of technology (MoT) is not an exact scie nce, and therefore the paper focuses on magnitudes of order instead of decimals in R&D and M&S expenditures for individual companies dependi ng on branch, and differing situations. One important result of the in vestigation is that short PLCs means larger R&D spendings, and vice ve rsa. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.