Correlates of success on customer-initiated R&D projects

Thirty-nine customer-initiated R&D projects were studied from the standpoint of those involved — salesmen, product engineers, R&D management, and R&D technical personnel. The technical and time success of the projects were correlated with six project dimensions as perceived by the R&D person working on the project, with participation and knowledge of product variables derived from management theory and with different communication patterns under differing conditions of project complexity. The results showed R&D perceptions of project priority and urgency to be correlated with time success and R&D perceptions of potential profitability to be correlated with technical success. The participation and knowledge of product variables showed no relation to project success. Directness of communication was positively related with technical success for high-complexity projects, and negatively related with time success for high-complexity projects. Project complexity and directness of communication were also found to be significant moderating variables in the agreement between salesmen and R&D persons on project dimensions.