Strategic management of technology in a global perspective: differences between European, Japanese and US companies

Summary form only given. A survey was conducted on the ´Strategic Management of Technology´ and senior R&D/ technology officers from 209 of the world´s most technology-intensive companies from western Europe, North America and Japan were asked about their global R&D strategies and the instruments they use to assure effective implementation. The survey was sent to all companies in North America, Japan and western Europe whose R&D expenditure topped $100 million. The analyses presented here show the following main results: First, there is a growing tendency to acquire technology from external sources throughout our sample. The high reliance on external sources for technology of all companies investigated is a very important change in the strategic management of technology over the past decade and for the future. Second, the internationalization of R&D plays, a very important role in the strategies of the large companies investigated and the data show that this will gain further momentum in the future. Japanese companies still lag behind the overall trend of R&D internationalization