Abstract
M.Ing. (Engineering Management)
It is apparent that understanding the link between the role of innovation in
competitiveness and economic development is essential. This is because innovation
ultimately holds the key to addressing the most pressing social and human challenges
of nations. In the past, some organizations viewed research and development (R & D)
as an intangible process that is difficult to manage and measure. However, the upsurge
in enabling technologies such as the internet is changing such perceptions of managing
R & D processes, which is now moving from a technology-oriented model to one that
is more interactive and collaborative. Moreover, organizations that have a clear
understanding of R & D management have great successes in exploiting it to speed up
the commercialization of new technologies that enable them to achieve numerous
competitive benefits such as first-to-market advantages, greater market shares for their
innovations, premium prices and dominant designs relative to their counterparts. While
it is evident that there is increased focus on fine-tuning R & D management processes,
the majority of these efforts were confined to the USA, Europe, Asia and other
developed economies, with limited developments in the less developed economies like
those in Africa.
This dissertation explores the five generations of R & D management practices and
attempts to predict the best practices that managers will adopt in the R & D sixth
generation. The findings suggest that the sixth generation will be characterized by
greater multi-disciplinary approaches emphasizing cross-functional communication,
collaboration, as well as greater inclusion of stakeholders such as suppliers, customers
and partners in the full life cycle of R & D process.