Strategy, structure, and performance issues of precompetitive R&D consortia: insights and lessons learned from SEMATECH

This paper examines the evolution of the role, structure, and orientation of SEMATECH in supporting the competitiveness of U.S. semiconductor industry between the late 1980s and the late 1990s. SEMATECH overcame its early challenges and succeeded by shifting its emphasis from horizontal (competitive) to vertical (precompetitive) collaboration, and then to a combined horizontal/vertical form (competitive). This evolutionary path in structure and strategy has broad implications for future relations between SEMATECH and the semiconductor industry as a whole, as well as industry R&D consortia in general. These implications are explored by detailing recent strategic developments at SEMATECH and their relationship to the market environment and structure in the global semiconductor manufacturing industry. This analysis is then extended to explore the implications for strategic research partnerships in other industries, which share particular salient characteristics with the semiconductor industry.