Entrepreneurship in R&D management

Summary form only given. The research idea of this paper is based on the extensive study of the float glass innovation introduced in 1959 by a UK based firm, Pilkington, that time the technology leader in the flat glass industry. While studying the emergence of float glass as the dominant design the R&D process itself was also examined. The aim of the paper is to look at four globally successful Finnish innovations and examine whether the respective R&D processes had similar features to the one of Pilkington´s. All the innovations were introduced by large (at least in the Finnish context), well established companies within different industries. Three of them were randomly chosen in respect to their R&D processes, the research topic of this paper. We found the R&D processes and pay back periods in all cases relatively long, several years. The idea of innovation had been in three cases known for several decades. However, all these three ideas had one missing link. Probably the missing link or necessity was the driving force for the companies