Strategic management of intrafirm R&D in process industry six essays on technology strategic planning

Abstract: This thesis deals with various aspects of strategic management of intrafirm R&D. It consists of six articles appended in full, along with an introductory text. The main purpose of the introductory text is to provide integration of the appended papers. It also aims to introduce the reader to the wider academic field of management of technology, position the thesis with respect to existing literature, introduce the context and cases, discuss the main theories and methods applied, and provide reflections on methodological issues and the emergent research design. The thesis ends with a section in which the research questions are explored one by one and managerial implications are discussed, while directions for further research are outlined. The first appended paper introduces the context: process industry. In this paper, which is based on a workshop survey, it is argued that the industry context matters. Thus it is indicated that the unique characteristics of the non-assembly-type process industry require a different research agenda than high-tech manufacturing industry. Moreover, major discrepancies are discussed in the light of industry context characteristics. The three papers that follow, two of which are conceptual and one case-study based, explore the tensions between the resource-based approach to strategy formulation and the industrial organization economics approach to strategy formulation. The industrial-economics-based Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) methodology for innovation strategy formulation is revisited from a resource-based view. A set of contextual factors are derived and a resource based version of the BAH methodology is generated. A unified BAH methodology is also introduced. The fifth appended paper investigates the roles and characteristics of technology strategic planning in a multinational, multidivisional corporation faced with a turbulent competitive environment. The single case study indicates that the main role of technology strategic planning is co ordination and control of long-term resource development. The sixth and final appended paper deals with the dynamic relationship among innovationrelated matters, technology-related matters and business- related matters in technology strategic planning. The results from the three case studies suggest that technology-related matters are not dealt with in a work process of their own but still, in all three cases, separate technology strategies are derived.