Keeeun Lee

Development of an R&D process model for enhancing the quality of R&D: comparison with CMMI, ISO and EIRMA

Although various methods of total quality management concentrate on a process approach to management, product and/or service realisation and support, little attention has been paid to both R&D quality and R&D processes. Since companies have increased investment in R&D projects for many years to eliminate the risk of an ineffective R&D process and enhance the quality of R&D, it is indispensable to create a well-structured R&D process. Thus, this paper proposes a standard R&D process model that can be applied to various R&D projects. In addition to evaluating this model, the standard R&D process model is compared with traditional process models, namely Capability Maturity Model Integration, European Industrial Research Management Association, and ISO15288. Finally, an assessment method is suggested to evaluate an R&D process in a real situation. The results of this paper present 21 R&D processes and the best practices in each process, enabling a company to find and improve weak R&D processes.

DEVELOPMENT OF AN OPEN INNOVATION MODEL FOR R&D COLLABORATION BETWEEN LARGE FIRMS AND SMALL-MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SMES) IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

Mutual growth in the relation between large firms and small-medium enterprises (SMEs) has been an important issue that can be overcome with the concept of open innovation, which is the most continuous research topic in technology innovation. However, most previous studies on open innovation barely analyse both firm types, focusing only on one party. The aim of this study is to develop open innovation models for complementary cooperation between both types of firms in manufacturing industry. Based on a basic understanding of open innovation in each firm type, this study suggests open innovation typology with two main concepts of open innovation: knowledge interaction and technology innovation. Finally, open innovation models are developed, considering the cooperative participants, their relationships in open innovation processes, and open innovation activities illustrated through case studies. The results contribute to manage strategic open innovation between large firms and SMEs through various approaches of cooperation.

The Idiosyncrasy of Research and Development Efficiency Across Types of Small‐ and Medium‐Sized Enterprises: Evidence from Korea

Small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are considered to be the main driving force behind economic and employment growth. However, the low productivity levels of SMEs cannot be explained by lower levels of R&D investment, but are instead a consequence of a lack of research and development (R&D) efficiency that would have been adequate for making firms more competitive. To investigate any differences in R&D efficiency that impact the company overall performance in economic and employment performance, we analyze various types of SMEs in Korea. This paper applies two estimation methods: data envelopment analysis and regression analysis. This study takes three relevant factors of output: (1) the number of patents, (2) the number of success in terms of technology development, and (3) the level of profit attained through new products. Additionally, the studys model incorporates three parts of input: (1) human resources, (2) development periods, and (3) R&D budget. In the context of this paper, a comparison of the factors regarding efficiency is performed based upon the following criteria: the level of novelty, the length of a products life cycle, and the time period of a competitor emulation of the product created by original enterprise. Comparing the factors that influence the efficiency of types within each criterion is meaningful in analyzing the differences in efficiency outcome on the various types among SMEs. Our findings indicate that SMEs vary among types in terms of efficiency and that there are also differences causing factors according to types.

A study on the open innovation model for win-win collaboration between large and small-medium enterprises

As the importance of mutual growth of large and small-medium enterprises has increased, the necessity for open innovation between them has been emphasized. However, few studies of open innovation have considered both sized of firms, and they just analyzed differences of innovation from the empirical point of view. Based on the survey of manufacturing firms conducted in 2012, the Korean Innovation Survey, this study proposes open innovation models between large firms and SMEs for win-win cooperation, reflecting the circumstances and characteristics of innovation for each size of firm. For this, first, we derive their respective needs for open innovation between them by analyzing the importance of internal needs and the performance of potential cooperation by means of weighted sums of correlation coefficients. Secondly, we build a typology matrix of enterprises, considering the innovation needs with a 2 by 2 matrix. We utilize this for the next step of defining types of open innovation by matching each type of large firm and SME. Finally, we develop open innovation models by multi-flow charts consisting of layers (subjects), edges (open innovation activities), and boxes (innovation process). The research results support SMEs managing strategic open innovation with large firms, which encourages balance of the large enterprises and SMEs for coexistence.

Developing an research and development (R&D) process improvement system to simulate the performance of R&D activities

Abstract Because of a shorter R&D cycle time and the increasing complexity of technology development, efficient decision support systems for R&D activities are necessary to facilitate R&D processes. In particular, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) require efficiency of R&D projects due to a lack of R&D budgets and resources. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a system which can assess current levels of R&D processes of companies and improve problematic processes. To this end, the proposed system applies a standard R&D process to evaluate the R&D level of companies, including four types of database and three modules: performance level analysis, comparison analysis, and performance simulation analysis. First, the module of performance level analysis aims to draw strong and weak R&D processes of companies, using three factors: importance, performance goal and current performance on each process. The second module provides the function of comparison analysis that compares the performance level of a company with that of others. Finally, the performance simulation analysis investigates influences of critical processes on R&D outcomes and predicts how much the processes can enhance technical, economic and process outcomes. In particular, a case study is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed system to an IT company. This system can help managers enhance their R&D performance by presenting necessary improvements on critical processes.