Research Team Design and Management for Centralized R&D

We demonstrate from a multilevel field study of 39 research teams within a global
Fortune 100
science/technology company that teams containing breadth of both research and business unit experience are more effective in their innovation efforts under two conditions: 1) there must be a knowledge-sharing climate in the team (arguably allowing the team to have access to the knowledge developed through the members' breadth of experience) and 2) the team leader also has a breadth of research and business experience allowing for the member breadth to be knowledgably managed. We identify and interpret cross-level effects of team membership within organizational divisions and discuss implications for the management of central R&D teams and for future research on organizational dynamics. Our data suggest that it is possible to maintain a centralized R&D approach and still address market-focused milestones.