IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unm/umamer/1999007.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

In-house R&D, outsourcing or alliances? Some strategic and economic considerations

Author

Listed:
  • Narula, Rajneesh

    (MERIT)

Abstract

Our primary objective here is to suggest when, and under what circumstances is it advantageous for firms to engage in the use of either in-house R&D activity, R&D outsourcing or R&D alliances. The extent to which a firm will use either of these modes is very much dependent on the technology and the nature of its competences: different technologies are at different stages of evolution within any given technological paradigm. Technologies also have different levels of uncertainty and rates of technical change. The decision to collaborate or internalise is also dependent, inter alia, on the nature of the technology relative to the firm''s core competences, and the distance of the firm''s technological activities from the market. Secondarily, we discuss some considerations in the choice partners, due to strategic issues as well as the peculiarities of the innovation process.

Suggested Citation

  • Narula, Rajneesh, 1999. "In-house R&D, outsourcing or alliances? Some strategic and economic considerations," Research Memorandum 007, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    • Handle: RePEc:unm:umamer:1999007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/rmpdf/1999/rm1999-007.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Hagedoorn & Jos Schakenraad, 1994. "The effect of strategic technology alliances on company performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(4), pages 291-309, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tom Broekel & Matthias Brachert, 2015. "The structure and evolution of inter-sectoral technological complementarity in R&D in Germany from 1990 to 2011," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 755-785, September.
    2. Salma Echcharqy, 2020. "Collaborative Growth: The Relationship between the Development Mode and the Profile of Moroccan SME," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 10(5), pages 109-116.
    3. Fischer, Denise & Greven, Andrea & Tornow, Mark & Brettel, Malte, 2021. "On the value of effectuation processes for R&D alliances and the moderating role of R&D alliance experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 606-619.
    4. Sang-Yong Lee & Kim Lim, 2006. "The impact of M&A and joint ventures on the value of IT and non-IT firms," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 111-123, September.
    5. Ferretti, Marco & Guerini, Massimiliano & Panetti, Eva & Parmentola, Adele, 2022. "The partner next door? The effect of micro-geographical proximity on intra-cluster inter-organizational relationships," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    6. James Hayton & Saloua Sehili & Vida Scarpello, 2010. "Why do firms join consortial research centers? An empirical examination of firm, industry and environmental antecedents," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 35(5), pages 494-510, October.
    7. Yenn-Ru Chen & Carl R. Chen & Chih-Kang Chu, 2014. "The Effect of Executive Stock Options on Corporate Innovative Activities," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 43(2), pages 271-290, June.
    8. Frank T. Rothaermel & Maria Tereza Alexandre, 2009. "Ambidexterity in Technology Sourcing: The Moderating Role of Absorptive Capacity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(4), pages 759-780, August.
    9. Ana Villar & César Camisón & Montserrat Boronat, 2007. "Technical Strategic Alliances And Performance: The Mediating Effect Of Knowledge ¿Based Competencies," Working Papers. Serie EC 2007-11, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    10. Criscuolo, Paola & Narula, Rajneesh & Verspagen, Bart, 2002. "The relative importance of home and host innovation systems in the internationalisation of MNE R&D: a patent citation analysis," Research Memorandum 035, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    11. Contractor, Farok J. & Ra, Wonchan, 2000. "Negotiating alliance contracts: Strategy and behavioral effects of alternative compensation arrangements," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 271-299, June.
    12. Rajneesh Narula & Andrea Martínez-Noya, 2014. "International R&D Alliances by Firms: Origins and Development," John H Dunning Centre for International Business Discussion Papers jhd-dp2014-06, Henley Business School, University of Reading.
    13. Devarakonda, Ramakrishna & Reuer, Jeffrey J. & Tadikonda, Harsha, 2022. "Founder social capital and value appropriation in R&D alliance agreements," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(4).
    14. Haiying Lin, 2012. "Cross-sector Alliances for Corporate Social Responsibility Partner Heterogeneity Moderates Environmental Strategy Outcomes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(2), pages 219-229, October.
    15. Noorderhaven, Niels, 2000. "Hermeneutic methodology and international management research," Occasional Papers 2000/2, Uppsala University, Department of Business Studies.
    16. Rosenfeld, Martin T. W. & Hornych, Christoph, 2021. "Wie vernetzt sind die privaten Firmen in Mitteldeutschland? Räumliche Muster der Kooperation im Rahmen "Formeller Unternehmensnetzwerke" (FUN)," Arbeitsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Rosenfeld, Martin T. W. & Stefansky, Andreas (ed.), "Metropolregion Mitteldeutschland" aus raumwissenschaftlicher Sicht, volume 30, pages 96-126, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    17. Feng Zhang & Guohua Jiang, 2019. "Combination of Complementary Technological Knowledge to Generate “Hard to Imitate” Technologies," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(02), pages 1-24, June.
    18. Llorens, F. Javier & Molina, Luis M. & Verdu, Antonio J., 2005. "Flexibility of manufacturing systems, strategic change and performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(3), pages 273-289, December.
    19. Nooteboom, Bart & Van Haverbeke, Wim & Duysters, Geert & Gilsing, Victor & van den Oord, Ad, 2007. "Optimal cognitive distance and absorptive capacity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1016-1034, September.
    20. Vanhaverbeke, W.P.M. & Beerkens, B.E. & Duysters, G.M., 2003. "Explorative and exploitative learning strategies in technology-based alliance networks," Working Papers 03.22, Eindhoven Center for Innovation Studies.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    research and development ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unm:umamer:1999007. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Leonne Portz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/meritnl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.