This thesis presents an empirical study on R&D project management practice of private R&D institutes in Korea. The study can be divided into two parts: a survey and case studies. Based on a review of literatures pertaining R&D management, especially R&D project management, research frameworks of the survey and case studies have been developed.
The survey has dealt with the overall practice of R&D management which contained project management, R&D strategy and R&D support management. The data were collected via mail survey from 101 private R&D institutes out of 400 institutes which have been over 3 years after their foundation and have more than 30 employees. Collected data were analyzed and compared with past studies to find out current status and changes of R&D management practice during the last decade as well as variations of R&D management practice according to industry or research types.
In the case studies, three companies were selected from the main industries in Korea, and the following data were collected: the underlying reasons of changing tendencies in R&D management practice identified through the survey, the position of R&D, R&D strategies in the company strategies, and the growth strategies for more efficient R&D, and so on.
The survey revealed many meaningful results.
First, most of Korean private R&D institutes have formal R&D plans, and they generally refer these plans in selecting R&D projects. R&D planning intervals of foods and electronics industries are longer than those of machinery and chemistry industries. The planning works have been activated recently compared to th past.
Second, current proportions of research types such as high-risk business development(HBD) and support of existing business(SEB) are not different from the past. Also the current proportion of HBD and SEB is similar in general, regardless of industry.
Third, the decision maker of project selection varies according to research type. While the presidents are major decision makers of project selection in HBD, the heads of the R&D institutes decide the selection of the other types of research.
Forth, the formal models of project selection are utilized in many R&D institutes, and the proportion of R&D institutes using formal models has been increased from 40% in 1984 to 56% in 1997. Formal tools for on-going project management are utilized by most of the R&D institutes, and the popular tools are Gantt chart and PERT/CPM.
Fifth, the major technology acquisition method is "to make" in the company, while "to buy" from out of the company is only about 30%. Technology outsourcing methods have been changed from direct buying of existing technologies to indirect acquisition with collaboration or joint venture. The motives of R&D are technology acquisition, substitution of imports, and marketability.
According to the case studies, the position of R&D in company strategies have been enhanced through introducing CTO, and the position of decision maker in R&D strategies has become higher from the chiefs of R&D institutes to the top managements.
The private R&D institutes understand the marketability and the possibility of technological success as the most important criteria of project selection. Also the resource allocation systems and the project evaluation systems are prepared to ensure the participation of relative strategic business units in the project selection processes.
From these results, this thesis suggests some recommendations for more efficient and strategic R&D in Korean private R&D institutes.
