R&d and marketing managers in high-tech companies: Are they different?

Although R&D-marketing integration is essential for innovation success, their interactions are often difficult and conflict ridden. It has been suggested in the literature that sociocultural differences between them in terms of their orientations towards time, types of projects they prefer to work on, their tolerance for ambiguity, and their professional and bureaucratic orientations can significantly contribute to the quality of this vital interface. The findings of our study of R&D and marketing managers in high-tech companies presented in this article contradict the generally held beliefs that these managers are socioculturally different and that their orientations affect the integration process. In fact, more similarities than differences were found. It is therefore proposed that the R&D-marketing integration problem may not be a simple “people” problem. Its solution may depend as much on organizational design variables.