AbstractfAQ中山大学中国第三产业研究中心

fAQ中山大学中国第三产业研究中心
    R&D service firms are highly innovative knowledge-intensive businesses. They constitute an important component of the knowledge economy, but one that is often in the shadow of the role normally attributed to universities and other public research organisations in the growth of high tech clusters and, more broadly, innovation systems. In this paper we present evidence from an in-depth analysis of the strategy, practice and impact of a sample of R&D service providers long active in the Cambridge area, the leading science and technology cluster in the UK. Based on an extensive programme of interviews with companies’ CEOs and managers, we analyse: the main features of the R&D contract and the way in which this allows firms to de-risk the uncertain process of early technology development and to meet customer’s needs;the services’ typical organisational features and development stages; the variety of observed growth paths. We provide evidence of the significant direct and indirect contribution to innovation of these service firms and conclude by discussing the implications of this original model of technology development in relation to the early-stage financing and university-led growth debates.fAQ中山大学中国第三产业研究中心

fAQ中山大学中国第三产业研究中心
ConclusionfAQ中山大学中国第三产业研究中心

fAQ中山大学中国第三产业研究中心
    The rise of R&D service providers and other organisations that rely on contract work for third parties is not recent, but the nature of their work is still significantly under-researched. This paper attempts to contribute to the literature by filling this gap. More specifically, the paper analyses the rationale, characteristics and impact of a technology development contract-based business. Secondly, it qualifies the contribution of R&D services to the high-tech sector. Thirdly, it highlights the systemic effect of the R&D service sector activities in the Cambridge cluster.fAQ中山大学中国第三产业研究中心
    The paper has, of course, its limitations. We cannot claim that the business model adopted by the Cambridge TDCs is precisely applicable in every industrial sector, innovation cluster or innovation system, though there is a prima facie case for arguing that the lessons we derive from their business models and successful innovation records might be. Therefore, while extending recent scholarly work on service innovation and the role of R&D services in innovation system theory, the paper has important implications for practice. The TDC model of contract R&D encourages long-term accumulation of skills and capabilities while also allowing firms to capture emergent technological opportunities and shift direction where necessary as technologies mature. This is achieved by absorbing technology risk through staging and taskdecomposition; by developing a culture of collaborative work based on swift team formation and recombination; and by keeping the organisation adaptable, flat and non-hierarchical. In addition, the  enewal of the talent pool is associated with the acquisition and development over time of a range of skills complementary to  echnical skills, including sales, project management and principles of marketing and finance, which not only help staff in all-round interactions with clients but also prepare teams for project-based spin-outs well before such opportunities arise.fAQ中山大学中国第三产业研究中心
    From a policy viewpoint, the technology development consultancy model can be very relevant for the design of intermediate (public or public–private) research organisations, in particular in its management of contracts and teams, combined with the strategic long-term accumulation of capabilities, and its operation in close proximity to market, which keeps organisations focused on industry needs. Two additional points are worth mentioning. The  Cambridge consultancies have been very effective developers of some ‘platform’ technologies, which typically require long lead development times. This is interesting because the financing of early stage technology development is recognised as a very difficult problem to overcome in many countries, including the US, where in fact the contribution of venture capital to this investment phase has been in steady decline over the last few years. Secondly, while the presence of the University of Cambridge is clearly acknowledged as a fundamental component of the Cambridge innovation cluster, most notably because of its capacity to attract and nurture highly skilled human capital, the process through which several of the cluster’s most successful high-tech product businesses have emerged was quite independent of the University and its – however excellent – technology transfer office. This is a point worth stressing because of the rising expectations placed upon highereducation institutions to extract value from their research activities through direct commercialisation of their science and technology.fAQ中山大学中国第三产业研究中心
    Cambridge is often cited as an exemplar case of entrepreneurial university, but the Cambridge Phenomenon is not all about the University and a broader view of the ecology of the Cambridge cluster is necessary to understand how and why it works. It is an ecology richer and more diverse than normally assumed, and its R&D services are an essential – if often hidden – part of it.fAQ中山大学中国第三产业研究中心
    There are of course many avenues for further research through which a set of related problems should be investigated in more detail. From a national or regional innovation policy perspective, the effectiveness of relying heavily on private sector contract R&D customers to support the growth of entrepreneurial firms needs to be systematically compared with alternative forms of funding longer term, high-risk R&D, namely publicly funded R&D (through grants or procurement contracts) and venture capital. Comparison is also required with different organisational models for technology development that rely to a significant extent on governmentdriven strategic investments (Government and EU support for the Cambridge TDCs has been minimal). Further research is certainly needed to develop evidence, ideally both qualitative and quantitative,on an international comparative basis, which could focus not only on the performance of R&D services but also on the geographical distribution of their value chains and economic impact.fAQ中山大学中国第三产业研究中心

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