The Role of the R&D Department within the Organization

Innovativeness of the organization and new product development (NPD) are related to various organizational managerial issues. At the same time, political processes in the shape of influence and power structures among subunits considered as key factors. The present paper discusses major issues concerning R&D role within the organization. A R&D department can increase its influence within the organization by fostering its degree of innovativeness and its customer connection, but its integration with other departments negatively affects its position. Second, influential R&D departments positively impact organizational performance through organizational innovativeness, particularly in cost-leadership organizations; this finding emphasizes the relevance of influence and power structures to research on organizational issues in this research stream. Third, the findings show some reciprocal relationships: While some influence tactics increase the influence of the R&D department, an influential R&D department makes increased use of these influence tactics to maintain its position.

کلیدواژه ها:

component ، R&D ، Innotiveness ، New product development (NPD)