Technology Fountainheads: The Management Challenge of R&d Consortia

Rating:
Summary: fills a gap, offers ideas, but little practical advice
Review: This is one of the few (maybe the only) book that deals specifically with the management of R&D consortia. The consortia studied in this book are American consortia which comprise a large number of members and whose duration is not limited. So its findings do not really apply to the short-term consortia that are nowadays used for achieving one particular goal. The book establishes a typology of R&D consortia and tries to explain their role in a theory of collective action. The chapters deal with vision, mission and leadership, R&D planning, Consortium Strategy, Consortia in Europe and Japan, and the future of R&D consortia. While the book is not particularly helpful for day-to-day consortium management, it offers some interesting conceptual ideas, but no groundbreaking insights.