Innovation management as a post-modern phenomenon: The outsourcing of pharmaceutical R&D

The institutionalization of R&D by large, modern organizations is regarded as one of the most significant social and economic factors of the twentieth century, In recent years post-modem organizations have begun to replace bu reaucratic control with market control, This approach is particularly attra ctive in the case of R&D employees who have been relatively successful in r esisting direct managerial control. Government statistics are used to demon strate that external R&D increased from 5% to 16% of internal R&D expenditu re between 1989 and 1995, This trend is examined in the context of consolid ation within the UK pharmaceutical industry, which has consider able implic ations for the sustainability of high-technology industry in the UK.