Organisation and management of research and development facilities - from cost to profit focus

摘要

In this publication we present the main findings of a research project into differences in organisation, management and activities between R&D cost centres, semi-profit centres, profit centres, and independent R&D businesses. First a theoretical framework is presented and then the empirical findings are reported. It is concluded that there are notable differences between cost and profit-oriented R&D structures relating to the degree of freedom in decision making on research management topics, the balance among types of R&D activities, strategy formulation, performance evaluation, marketing and management demands imposed on the capabilities and attitude of the staff. Furthermore, it is observed that semi-profit centres have the most challenging task as they are in an invidious middle position: they have to bid for internal projects in order to cover their costs while their freedom to attract external customers or to use a cost plus transfer price is usually limited. [References: 38]