Capturing value from research networks in emerging technologies

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About this research

Who is paying for this project?

This project is funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council as part of an initiative on innovation. The ESRC has funded seven academic researchers to be Innovation Fellows of the Advanced Institute of Management Research and a further group of academics to run projects relating to innovation.

The projects are intended to address options for public policy to increase levels of innovation in the UK and to consider how economies such as the UK’s can capture high value from innovation processes that are increasingly global in nature.

Why fund a project on research networks?

The UK government is funding this project because it addresses one aspect of the UK’s competitiveness in innovation. Plastic electronics has been identified as one of six priority areas for science and technology investment by the UK government. (See this report by the Council for Science and Technology, and click here for details of a Parliamentary Committee on the subject.)

If the UK is to keep pace with global developments in plastic electronics, collaborative research partnerships are necessary. These partnerships need to identify market demands for new technologies, solve some of the most pressing technical and production-related problems relating to those technologies and build links along the value chain.

The UK government therefore has an interest in ensuring that such collaborative projects are economically attractive to potential participants. At the same time, of course, investments to 'oil the wheels' of collaborative R&D also need to generate value for the public purse.

This project will offer insights into the costs and benefits of collaborative partnerships from the perspectives of different players in the emerging 'ecosystem' of plastic electronics (academics, scientists and engineers in commercial companies, R&D managers, company directors, and funders of research). It will help to reveal whether and how partnerships can be fostered through research networks, and how public funding contributes to making collaboration worthwhile.

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What is unique about this project?

Many researchers have studied innovation networks and technology policy in great depth. (See for example the work of SPRU). Usually, these studies are carried out at the level of organisations, industries, regions or national economies.

This project is unique because it brings the analysis of collaborative partnerships down to the level of the individual scientist or engineer. It looks at human factors that matter for collaboration to go ahead, such as how well people know each other, how similar they are and aspects of personality and reputation.

Of course, technology fit is important - why collaborate with someone if they don't have something to offer? This project takes these technologies into account, but also brings 'softer' factors into the picture. What else also need to be in place for a partnership to get off the ground? Trust? Shared values? Common identity? Congruent rewards? How do preferences for collaboration vary between different types of people (e.g. academics v commercial scientists; junior v senior engineers; men v women)?

Another important aspect of this project is that it focuses on costs as well as benefits in collaboration. To an outsider or a manager trying to foster collaboration, a particular pairing might seem like an obvious match. But for those concerned, the time investments might be unattractive relative to alternative uses of time and resources. People are limited in the number of projects they can take on, so it is important to understand marginal benefits of collaboration.

This is especially important when considering exploratory R&D projects in speculative or pre-competitive areas of technology, which are not expected to lead directly to revenue generation. What motivates people to get involved in these exploratory projects? Scientific interest? Altruism? Careerism? And to what extent does the availability of research funding provide compensation for relationships that are deemed unattractive on the basis of these 'human' factors?

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How will the research be done?

This project examines the factors affecting choice of collaborators. As noted in the previous section, the research aims to take account of technology fit, but also to bring 'softer' factors into the picture.

The project involves gathering data from two sources:

The primary motivation for preparing the two Competence Matrices was to be able to analyse technology fit in collaboration. As a stand-alone tool, the Competence Matrix may also be of interest to companies and universities seeking partners, and to governments and other stakeholders interested in the maturity of plastic electronics technology in each country. Click here to see comments on the UK Competence Matrix.

The surveys ask respondents to identify what kinds of expertise would be most valuable in a collaborator, and use a market research technique called conjoint analysis to identify preferences for different types of collaborators.

The first phase of survey work will be done in collaboration with UK Displays and Lighting, a networking organisation that has been set up with UK government funding. Findings will be published on this web site, and communicated to UKDL members. No company or individual will be identifiable in any published material.

Once this approach has been tried and proven, the intention is to analyse membership of research networks outside the UK.

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