Maximilian Von Zedtwitz
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Von Zedtwitz
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Maximilian
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Organizing global R&D: challenges and dilemmas

2004 , von Zedtwitz, Maximilian , Gassmann, Oliver , Boutellier, Roman

After more than a decade of widespread global R&D expansion, top managers in multinational companies take decentralized competencies for granted, expecting their international research and product development functions to deliver results. However, based on more than 150 in-depth interviews and case research carried out with 18 multinational companies from three industry groups between 1996 and 2000, we have identified six fundamental dilemmas that make it difficult even for companies with carefully managed distributed R&D networks to exploit the full potential of global innovation. In addition to a root-problem analysis, we surveyed these companies about the drivers of R&D globalization, and how these drivers would affect their organizations over the next 10 years. Although some of the trends that emerged are industry specific with regard to technology development, we describe five common traits that are expected to shape R&D organization in the mid-term future.

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Market versus technology drive in R&D internationalization: four different patterns of managing research and development

2002-05-01 , von Zedtwitz, Maximilian , Gassmann, Oliver

Research and development are subject to different location drivers. The analysis of 1021 R&D units, each distinguished by its main orientation towards either research or development work, reveals that research is concentrated in only five regions worldwide, while development is more globally dispersed. Our research is based on 290 research interviews and database research in 81 technology-intensive multinational companies. We identify two principal location rationales-access to markets and access to science-as the principal determinants for four trends that lead to four archetypes of R&D internationalization: ‘national treasure', ‘market-driven', ‘technology-driven', and ‘global'. Their organizational evolution is characterized by four trends. The model is illustrated with short cases of international R&D organization at Kubota, Schindler, Xerox, and Glaxo-Wellcome. Differences in R&D internationalization drivers lead to a separation of individual R&D units by geography and organization. Current belief is to integrate R&D processes; separation seems to contradict this trend. We argue that this need not be the case, for there are good reasons to maintain some independence between research and development.

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Leading Pharmaceutical Innovation : How to win the Life Science Race

2018 , Gassmann, Oliver , Schuhmacher, Alexander , von Zedtwitz, Maximilian , Reepmeyer, Gerrit

"It's time for a paradigm shift in pharmaceutical R&D. This book will tell you why." Dr. Goetz Baumann, Business Unit Manager, Hoffmann-La-Roche Germany. "This book offers a fact based, comprehensive insight to the increasing challenges of today's drug development. Well worth reading not just for newcomers to the industry but also for industry professionals who want to understand the big picture." Dr. Pius Renner, Head of Strategic Planning, Novartis. "Pharmaceutical innovation is in crisis. The industry will have to change both its innovation processes and its business models in order to reverse these trends. The authors have marshalled together an impressive array of research in one volume. This book should prove to be an indispensable resource for all participants in the pharmaceutical industry." Prof. Henry Chesbrough, Executive Director, Center for Open Innovation, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.

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Trends and determinants of managing virtual R&D teams

2003-06-01 , Gassmann, Oliver , von Zedtwitz, Maximilian

The past years have seen a decentralization of R&D to local markets and centres-of-excellence. Supported by modern information and communication technologies, ‘virtual project teams' were formed to facilitate transnational innovation processes. With their boundaries expanding and shrinking flexibly with changing project necessities, virtual teams are believed to be an important element in future R&D organization. Based on 204 interviews with R&D directors and project managers in 37 technology-intensive multinational companies we identify four distinct forms of virtual team organizations used to execute R&D projects across multiple locations. Ordered by increasing degree of central project coordination, these four team concepts are based on: (1) decentralized self-organization, (2) a system integrator as a coordinator, (3) a core team as a system architect, and (4) a centralized venture team. Our contingency approach for organizing a transnational R&D project is based on four principal determinants: (1) the type of innovation (radical/incremental), (2) the systemic nature of the project (systemic/autonomous), (3) the mode of knowledge involved (tacit/explicit), and (4) the degree of resource bundling (complementary/redundant). According to our analysis, the success of virtual teams depends on the appropriate consideration of these determinants.

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New Concepts and Trends in International R&D Organization

1999-03-01 , Gassmann, Oliver , von Zedtwitz, Maximilian

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Managing Global Innovation, Uncovering the Secrets of Future Competitiveness

2008 , Boutellier, Roman , Gassmann, Oliver , von Zedtwitz, Maximilian

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Managing Customer Oriented Research

2002 , von Zedtwitz, Maximilian , Gassmann, Oliver

Insufficient technology transfer between research and its customers is one of the key weaknesses in industrial R&D. Since knowledge transfer to development and other corporate partners is the only raison d'etre for industrial research, R&D management should place more emphasis on developing the transfer capacity of its researchers. Based on analysis of more than 200 research interviews in 62 companies, we focus on the management interface between research scientists and development teams. We identify five principal dilemmas for managing customer oriented research: the short/long-term dilemma, simultaneity and uncertainty, surrender of project ownership, technocentricity and need fulfilment, specialisation and integration. These concepts are illustrated with five examples of R-to-D management at Siemens, ABB, General Electric, EGU, and Rolic. Although geographical, functional, and socio-behavioral distances call for a stronger consideration of research-development integration, research must retain a sufficient degree of independence. We propose a transfer oriented model for managing the R-to-D process, from what is possible to what is necessary. Aligning research activities with market requirements may be the only survival strategy for many corporate research centres.

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Organization of Industrial R&D on a Global Scale

1998 , Gassmann, Oliver , von Zedtwitz, Maximilian

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Global Corporate R&D to and from Emerging Economies

2016 , von Zedtwitz, Maximilian , Gassmann, Oliver

The re-emergence of China, India, and other formerly small economies as large markets and manufacturing powers has been one of the most significant events of the beginning of the 21st century. Well into the late 1990s, these countries played, at best, a peripheral role in global research and development (R&D) and innovation.

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