Integrating R&D and Marketing: A Review and Analysis of the Literature

Abstract

The trend toward leaner, flatter organizations enhances the need for communication and cooperation between the marketing and the R&D functions. This paper reviews evidence of the need for integrative communication and cooperation, research on the barriers to integration, and extant models to study integration. We summarize this research and these models with a causal map to organize research on integration at the new-product project-level. Within this framework we review research on the methods that managers can (and are) using to achieve functional integration between marketing and R&D. These actions include relocation and physical facilities design, personnel movement, informal social systems, organizational structures, incentives and rewards, and formal integrative management processes. For each action we summarize evidence to date and propose researchable hypotheses.To succeed in today's marketplace, most corporations must engender cooperation between the marketing and R&D (Research and Development) functions.It was not always so. In earlier eras expertise could be centralized in a single person who knew (or developed) the product technology, production process, and means to market goods to others. For example, a blacksmith knew where to get raw materials, how to maintain the forge fire, and how to shape metal. Customers sought out the blacksmith and explained their needs. He asked the questions required to understand their needs and made the product, developing new features and production techniques to meet any special conditions as he went along. If he did these tasks well, he lived well. If he failed at any of these tasks, he starved. The marketing and R&D functions were integrated in the activities of the blacksmith. Market feedback was quick, obvious, and persuasive.Even today in entrepreneurial firms, the producer-inventor frequently combines the knowledge of what is needed with how to develop it. But as the firm grows, the marketing and R&D functions become specialized. Scientists are hired to maintain and develop technology; marketing specialists are hired to sell the product, talk to customers, and communicate product benefits. Over time these groups grow apart, each expert at their own function, but less aware of the other's contribution. As integration and communication between these critical functions decreases, their ability to combine skills to develop and produce successful products decreases. The firm suffers.Marketing and R&D both provide input to many tasks. Some are core tasks upon which the success of the enterprise rests. For example, marketing and R&D share responsibilities for setting new-product goals, identifying opportunities for the next generation of product improvement, resolving engineering-design and customer-need tradeoffs, and understanding customer needs. These responsibilities require cooperation throughout the entire task and the combined expertise of both functional groups. Other tasks are dominated by one or the other group. For example, marketing often has domin...

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