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BATTEN INSTITUTE
BRIEFING
TRANSFORMING SOCIETY THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION // FEB 2012
Leading Global R&D Networks: Rewards, Risks and Realities INNOVATORS' ROUNDTABLE SERIES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA’S DARDEN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Corporate innovation does not take place only within the vacuum of a company’s contributors
Malgorzata Glinska Senior Researcher, Batten Institute glinskam@darden.virginia.edu
Sean D. Carr Director, Intellectual Capital, Batten Institute carrs@darden.virginia.edu
Amy Halliday Writer and Editorial Consultant, Batten Institute hallidaya@aol.com
R&D unit. New products and services emerge from widely distributed R&D net-
works, which may exist within the firm or across firm boundaries by means of partnerships with external engineers, scientists and managers. Whether it’s through offshor-
ing—locating proprietary R&D activities in other countries—or through arm’s-length
relationships with an array of customers, suppliers, governments, universities and other research organizations, leading today’s corporate R&D means being able to manage across a vast network of innovation activities.
Despite its many benefits, the growing internationalization and externalization of
R&D poses significant challenges, including the protection of intellectual property, the dilution of firm-specific resources, the deterioration of integrative capabilities, and the ever-present problem of too many demands on managers’ limited time and attention. This briefing will describe the current state of globally networked corporate R&D,
explore the risks involved in having diffuse and disparate R&D centers, and introduce a few recommendations for addressing these critical challenges.