In times of global markets, increasing competition and short product life cycles the effective and efficient management of industrial research and development (R&D) activities is of central importance for companies as well as for the whole economy. The efficient allocation of scarce R&D...

Standards play crucial roles in many different aspects of today's economy. They can define meanings of semantics, product interfaces, process steps, or performance levels. Interorganisational standards are specifications that define business-related semantics and processes, which are made...

Deals with the topic of out-licensing as a novel form of risk-sharing collaborations. The phenomenon of out-licensing is illustrated by three major case studies of Novartis, Schering and Roche as well as several smaller case studies. This book applies the Nobel Prize awarded economic theory of...

This work examines the current, relevant and complex problem of how companies can take an intellectual property lead within research and development collaborations. Special emphasis is placed on the early phases of the innovation process and the service industry sector, in which intellectual...

Traditionally resources for R and D projects are allocated via planning and budgeting procedures, evaluation methods and hierarchical decision-committees. This book presents resource allocation via internal markets as an alternative to such hierarchical decision procedures. Internal R and D...

The book answers a simple question: when managers and companies face a decision with two outcomes that are safe and risky, what leads them to choose the risky alternative? The answer starts with a detailed review of the theory behind risk and decision making by managers. The book then gathers...

The introduction of the Mercedes-Benz Production System (MPS) is exemplary of a trend within the automotive industry: the creation and introduction of company-specific standardised production systems. This book contributes to the debate about production systems by examining the social and...