Strategic advantage through externally sourced technology-practical management considerations for exploiting global technology sources

Summary form only given as follows. The growth in R&D investment worldwide over the last two decades suggests that any organization can claim a proprietary interest in an increasingly smaller share of the innovation environment. Some organizations are looking to expand their access to new technology by developing management techniques that will enable greater visibility and access to innovation from sources external to the firm. Research has suggested that some companies are viewing superior ability to integrate externally sourced technology as a source of competitive advantage. Limited resources for internal technology development is a problem faced by both the public and private sectors. This paper summarizes the activities of a pilot project conducted by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Research and Engineering, to assess the potential of externally sourced commercial technology from throughout the world for meeting defense requirements. The pilot project builds on prior research into management practices utilized by US and Japanese industry to outsource technology. Using primarily private sector management practices, this government project attempts to develop evidence that, heretofore largely untapped, global commercial technology sources can be utilized to meet complex national security requirements. The project is adapting a leading edge knowledge management system to enable automated global query, summarization, and analysis to identify promising sources of latest generation products as well as late stage development efforts. Automated analysis techniques are being coupled with the development of expert networks in specialized technology areas. The results of these search efforts are being mapped against near term requirements of all branches of American forces. The objective is to determine if the DoD should institutionalize efforts to aggressively seek nontraditional sources and to assess under what conditions such an effort could be successful in accelerating the transition of commercially based technology into defense systems. The results and recommendations of the pilot project are discussed