Knowledge sharing and the forms of R&D collaboration

Abstract

In the technological driven industry, the firm often tends to implement a R&D project with partners to share the cost and the risk, and it wants to make the driving force for the sustainable competitive advantage with a R&D project. In terms of knowledge sharing, a crucial key of these strategies is how to attain the technological knowledge from the partners and how to find the optimal ratio between its own R&D knowledge and the external acquired knowledge in the accumulated knowledge function, that's because the efficient way reducing marginal cost of product as well as coping with the rapidly changing business environment. Therefor, this article examines the factors of accumulated knowledge function and how the forms of R&D collaboration, inter- and intra firm's interactions affect accumulated knowledge. © 2014 Springer-Verlag.