This paper describes how firms’ propensity to carry out component (or architectural) innovation is influenced by the degree of task uncertainty during inter-firm product development. Using successfully applied patents in automobile emission control technologies from 1970 to 1998; this research...

Development of a medical device is a multi-disciplinary activity. This is particularly the case for laser based instruments which encompass mechanical, optical, hardware and software sub-systems, together with the essential industrial design process. In this field, as in many others, small...

Firms increasingly look outside their organizational boundaries to identify partners that can improve the effectiveness of R&D projects. The strategy for using partners, however, varies significantly across projects. In some, partners are used primarily to lower development costs and/or...

For many years, the pharmaceutical industry has been one of the leaders in innovation through R&D and its impact has had both economic and social significance. This paper reports on an exploratory case study of one Small to Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) in the pharmaceutical domain. Here, two...