Collaborative R&D activities have been spotlighted as a vehicle to acquire a company's competencies in the market. Also, communication activity has been recognized as one of the most important success factors in collaborative R&D projects. But few studies on communication patterns in collaborative R&D projects have been done.
This study focuses on communication patterns in collaborative R&D projests. The research questions are as follows :
1) What are the influencing factors of communication patterns in collaborative R&D projects?
2) What are the relationships between communication patterns and the performance in collaborative R&D projects?
3) Does the relationships between communication patterns and the performance of collaborative R&D projects vary according to contingency factors?
Based on the review of related literature, a research model and hypotheses are generated. To test hypotheses, mail survey are carried out and 52 mail questionares are collected from managers of collaborative R&D projects. Correlation and Fisher's Z analysis are used to test hypotheses.
The major findings of this study are summarized as follows.
First, technological innovativeness, the importance of the technology to the company's strategy, task interdependence among partners, and project formalization are strongly related to all variables in communication patterns. But, technical complementarity among partners is partially related to communication patterns.
Second, communication patterns such as communication frequency in general, frequency of communication on technical problem-solving communication, administrative issues, and performance feedback are strongly related to the performance of collaborative R&D projects.
Third, task interdependence among partners and project formalization influence the relationships between communication patterns and the performance of collaborative R&D projects. But, technological innovativeness doesn't play a role as a contingency factor. Finally, the managerial implication and limitation of this study are described and future research directions are suggested.
