Technology Sourcing Strategies and Cooperative Patterns in Vertical Cooperative R&D Projects

Abstract

Since 1982, the government of Korea has actively promoted vertical cooperative R&D programs between government-sponsored research institutes (GRIs) and private firms. A number of firms participated in the programs because cooperative R&D could lower the risk and could contribute to rapid commercialization of many technologies. This paper examines the effectiveness of vertical cooperative R&D projects by the modes of cooperation between GRIs and industrial firms and analyzes the performance of participating firms technology sourcing strategies for commercial utilization of cooperative R&D results at the project level. The data have been obtained from 128 cases of vertical cooperative R&D Program from 1982 to 1989 under the Government-Industry Cooperative R&D Program sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology(MOST) in Korea. The cooperative R&D projects are classified into 4 groups by two criteria, i,e., the level of participation of firms and the breadth of cooperation. The findings suggest that firms should actively participate in cooperative R&D projects. In addition, in order to enhance commercial success, cooperation between GRIs and industrial firms should not be limited to R&D projects in Korea usually lack internal technological capabilities that are needed to commercialize the results of cooperative R&D. Three different technology sourcing strategies - exclusive cooperative R&D strategy, in-house development augmented cooperative R&D strategy, and licensing-in supplemented cooperative R&d strategy - are empirically derived through cluster analysis of the relative usage rates cooperative R&D and of other supplementary technology acquisition methods. The findings suggest that the firms participating in vertical cooperative R&D projects should try to utilize other supplementary technology acquisition methods in order to achieve commercial utilization of the vertical cooperative R&D results.