Exploration concourante et pilotage de la recherche. Une entreprise de spécialités chimiques

Abstract

The tremendous development of the innovation strategies leads to a thorough examination of the driving of the research function. How to organise dual exploration of potential markets and of technical fields? This question is examined in the present article through the example of a special chemical products enterprise. The longitudinal analysis shows a transition between three models: a "self driving", of the research (between 1960-1975), a "coupling and dependency" situation with respect to the business units (between 1975 and 1995) and an original model of "strategic interdependence" henceforth. The tremendous development of the innovation strategies leads to a thorough examination of the driving of the research function. How to organise dual exploration of potential markets and of technical fields? This question is examined in the present article through the example of a special chemical products enterprise. The longitudinal analysis shows a transition between three models: a "self driving", of the research (between 1960-1975), a "coupling and dependency" situation with respect to the business units (between 1975 and 1995) and an original model of "strategic interdependence" henceforth.