INFORMATION EXCHANGE AND GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES IN US AND JAPANESE RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT CONSORTIA - INSTITUTIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL INFLUENCES

We examine institutional and organizational influences upon informatio n exchange and governance structures within R&D consortia in the Unite d States and Japan. We hypothesized that national differences in insti tutional environments would lead to less active governance and informa tion-exchange activities within Japanese R&D consortia relative to the ir U.S, counterparts. At the consortium level, we expected that intern al consortium diversity would increase information exchange and govern ance requirements, and that structures stabilizing relations between c onsortium members would reduce information-exchange and governance req uirements. We tested these hypotheses on 39 U,S, and 54 Japanese multi form R&D consortia, involving, respectively, 1801 U,S, member organiza tions and 1647 Japanese member organizations. Controlling for organiza tional age, size, and strategic focus, we found that internal diversit y and interorganizational relations are both associated with informati on-exchange and governance mechanisms. Our model has much greater expl anatory power for the United States than for Japan.