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Managing Technology in the Top-R&D-Spending Companies Worldwide—Results of a Global Survey

Introduction There is a common rule of thumb found in innovation literature, that innovative firms are twice as profitable as firms that stick to old products and processes (Tidd et al., 1997). With competition to a high degree driven by process and product innovation, the strategic dimension of technology and therefore the crucial meaning of industrial R&D for competitiveness are a commonplace in the scientific and industrial community. It is for this reason that the literature on the strategic importance of technology is constantly growing in economic-, policy-, and management-oriented literature (Tidd et al., 1997; Gerybadze et al., 1997). However, at the same time there is a constant dearth of empirical knowledge about how companies actually set up and implement their technology strategies. This article is based on a survey among the top-R&Dspending companies worldwide and analyzes the practices in the strategic management of technology in large multidivisional corporations. A questionnaire was sent to senior R&D/technology officers of all companies in the Triad regions-North America, western Europe and Japan-whose R&D expenditures totaled $100 million or more. Our results presented here focus on two issues. First, we analyze the nature of current corporate technology strategies and their importance for corporate management. Second, we look at the ways in which companies provide the basis for these technology strategies, i.e., the instruments used to keep up-to-date with technological dynamics and to acquire the technological knowledge rated crucial for competitiveness. The analysis differentiates-whenever significant results came to the fore-between companies from the three regions.