This paper examines deviations in complex product development. Based on an extensive case study, using participant observations, interviews, and data from deviation reports, it illustrates the causes, procedures, management challenges of deviations, and organizational roles devoted to deviation management. Based on the rich data material, it furthermore proposes a typology of deviations developed for a better understanding of this significant empirical phenomenon.
What keeps an alliance leader awake during night? Past alliance research has contributed to our understanding of aspects such as motives for forming an alliance, initial conditions and the process of development. However, few studies have investigated challenges that alliance leaders face, as well as roles they adopt during the alliance life cycle. In this paper, we seek to investigate critical incidents that alliance leaders face in the execution of contract‐based R&D alliances. By using the Critical Incident Technique, 158 critical incidents have been collected and analyzed. Our findings show that, in terms of frequency of occurrence, managing informal relationships and alliance formation are the two dominant themes, followed by formal R&D process, embeddedness, and exit. In addition, four crucial roles for managing an R&D alliance are also suggested. These roles are Facilitating, Finishing, Ambassadoring, and Trustkeeping.
This paper examines the influence of context-related risks in operative work in contract-based R&D alliances by comparing critical incidents from four R&D alliance projects experienced by alliance operative leaders in two contextual settings — each containing two different types of risks: relational and performance. The results indicate that the different risks influence certain critical aspects of the operative work in the studied projects; these have implications for individuals working in alliances that are exposed to these types of risks. However, the findings also indicate that there are other aspects, related to relationship and trust building in the R&D alliance operative work, that are critical in both of the research contexts.
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