Contract research as a part of new product development

Due to shortened product lifecycles and a growing complexity of technologies, companies increasingly cooperate with external partners to optimize their R&D process. To expand their own R&D effort on new technologies, companies can use external resources from partners like universities. Due to their extensive resources and high scientific expertise, universities have proved ideal partners for contract research. This cooperation intensified with amendments such as the US Bayh-Dole Act in 1980 and similar changes in Germany in 2002. Although university-industry technology transfer has been investigated in detail the last two decades, little is known about integrating universities as an external partner into a company's new product development process. In our study, we upgrade Cooper's well-proven Stage-Gate-Process to include different forms of university research. We present a way to establish prolonged interaction from preliminary idea screening to market launch. Our theoretical model was tested and modified in three in-depth case studies and offers the basis for future research in different industries since we kept it in a general form. It is of great relevance to companies dealing with emerging technologies, because their knowledge often originates from university research and they cooperate with university scientists on a regular basis.