Towards open innovation: a new approach in the management of scientists and engineers

As emerges from practical experience and the relevant literature, various specific and often unique elements characterise the values and behaviour of scientists and engineers. This group of personnel belongs to both firms and the scientific community making integration in a firm difficult. This often leads to conflict between personnel in R&D and personnel working in the other divisions of a firm (especially marketing and production). In order to facilitate the integration of scientific personnel, firms tend to adopt one of two very different approaches: the managerial integration model, typical of firms in an Anglo-Saxon culture, and the technological integration model, typical of firms in continental Europe (especially Germany). A third approach, which is very similar to technological integration, seems to be emerging from recent evolutions in R&D divisions. This approach is supported by a significant empirical base. It is emerging hand in hand with the progressive spread of open innovation. The paper presents an analytic description of a new approach to managing scientists and engineers that has arisen from the development of the above trends concerning the evolution of R&D towards open innovation. The results of the study described in this paper are based on the analysis of four case studies of Italian multinational firms operating in the pharmaceutical, food, specialty chemical, and aerospace industries