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Third generation management of R&D seeks to create a strategic and operational partnership between researchers and other functional units that will meet both the challenging technological needs of today and tomorrow.

This paper explores effective management strategies to optimise corporate value in the pharmaceutical industry. It uses key variables such as research and development (R&D), board gender diversity, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.

Given the dynamic and multifaceted nature of corporate innovation and its impact on performance, 53 pharmaceutical companies were examined using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). This methodology enabled exploration of causal and predictive relationships in corporate value and management.

Greater investment in R&D drives innovation and future growth. Despite the short-term financial impact, R&D investment reflects a strategic emphasis on long-term growth and sustainability in the pharmaceutical industry. Management effectiveness mediates the effects of gender diversity on increasing corporate value. The ESG score is the least relevant variable for assessing the value of pharmaceutical companies. It contributes to improving management practices but is not fully considered in the overall corporate value of a company taking into account the selected database.

Pharmaceutical companies can use these findings to adjust and optimise their investment in R&D. They can thus direct their strategies towards more ethical and sustainable practices, thereby enhancing effectiveness and competitiveness. The combination of these elements provides an opportunity to develop integrated management strategies.

This research explores innovative strategies to enhance corporate value, emphasising the pivotal role of R&D and ESG factors. It reveals the intricacies of the pharmaceutical landscape and provides solutions for organisational strategy.

This study aims to perceive research and development (R&D) knowledge management from a capability-based view, develops a theoretically grounded construct and empirically validates it within R&D organizational settings.

The paper presents a five-step multi-method research design consisting of a literature review, expert interviews and surveys to develop and validate the R&D knowledge management capability scale within R&D organizations.

R&D knowledge management capability construct emerges as a three-dimensional construct with dimensions – knowledge creation, communication and commercialization which can be measured through a parsimonious set of items, designed at team levels within R&D organizations.

R&D managers can use this R&D knowledge management capability scale to measure, compare and develop the knowledge management capabilities of their R&D teams.

The three dimensions of R&D knowledge management capabilities along with their measurement items are the unique contributions of this study to the knowledge-based view of the firm.

The essential investments in new product development (NPD) made by industrial companies entail effective management of NPD activities. In this context, performance measurement is one of the means that can be employed in the pursuit of effectiveness.

Organizations are increasingly reliant on their top management to provide research and development (R&D) units with a strategic focus reflecting changes in their competitive environments. However, little research has specifically explored implications arising from top management involvement in R&D budget setting. This study examines empirically the extent to which such involvement is associated with first, an emphasis on financial factors in setting R&D budgets, and second, with the importance of budget targets for R&D managers. Third, the study evaluates the impact of that involvement on R&D performance evaluation. The results of the research provide evidence of the relation R&D budget setting has to these three factors.

Prior studies generally focus on income smoothing through discretionary accruals and document that managers have incentives to smooth earnings due to various reasons. This paper aims to focus on income smoothing through research and development (R&D) management and examine whether and how income smoothing through R&D management affects credit rating agencies’ perception of firm risk.

The authors use financial statement data from the CRSP/Compustat Merged data set universe for the period from 1992 to 2019 after excluding financial and utility industries. The authors follow the model for credit ratings used in previous literature to test the hypothesis. Specifically, the authors use an ordered probit model to express credit ratings as a function of income smoothing attributes.

The authors find that R&D-based income smoothing improves a firm’s credit rating. However, the positive effect of R&D-based income smoothing on credit ratings is less than that of accruals-based income smoothing. This study also shows that the positive effect of R&D-based income smoothing is more pronounced for firms less subject to opportunistic incentives, further strengthening the notion that managers smooth earnings through R&D management to provide more informative earnings.

This study contributes to the income smoothing literature in several ways. First, the authors contribute to the research by showing that managers’ income smoothing activity through R&D management positively affects firms’ credit rating. Second, the authors also document the relative benefits of the two different income smoothing techniques in terms of improving credit agencies’ perception of firms’ creditworthiness.

Previous research has analyzed the consequence of network stability; however, little is known about how partner type diversity influence network stability in R&D network. Based on knowledge-based view and social network theory, the purpose of this paper is to unravel the internal mechanisms between partner type diversity and network stability through the mediating role of knowledge recombination in R&D network.

The authors collected an unbalanced panel patent data set from information communication technology industry for the period 1994–2016. Then, the authors tested the different dimensions of partner type variety and its relevance in the R&D network and the mediating role of knowledge recombination through adopting the multiple linear regression.

Results indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between partner type diversity (variety and relevance) and network stability, whereas knowledge recombination partially mediate these relationships.

From the perspective of R&D networks, this paper explores that there are the under-researched phenomena the antecedent of network stability through nodal attributes (i.e. partner type variety and partner type relevance). Moreover, this paper empirically examined the mediating role of knowledge recombination in the partner type diversity–network stability relationships. The novel perspective allows focal firm to recognize importance of nodal attributes, which are critical to fully excavate the potential capabilities of cooperating partners in R&D network.

The electric utility industry, unlike most other technology‐intensive industries, does not spend much money or effort on research and development. Many utilities do not possess an in‐house R&D facility, nor is there an R&D line item in their budgets. Over the last several decades the rate of change in the electric utility industry has been very slow and in‐house R&D efforts have not been required. As the rate of change in the industry is beginning to change, the need to pursue R&D is increasing. The electric utility industry is responding to this increasing requirement by increasing R&D budgets, and in some cases re‐initiating the R&D process within individual utilities. The purpose of this paper is to focus on R&D portfolio management efforts of various actors from different industrial sectors, to find out the best practices by using benchmarking method.

The paper used case study approach and on‐site interviews as research methods.

The authors found that R&D management is in its infancy in the electric utility sector, while the methods established in the manufacturing sector are applicable there.

This study is exploring R&D management in the electric utility sector and contributes to the service innovation research stream.

This paper seeks to identify the variables that affect the innovation performance of R&D teams, and to investigate the interactions between these variables.

A research framework is first established through a literature review, and is then adjusted according to case studies of five high‐tech companies in Taiwan. The adjusted model is then tested through a survey of high‐tech companies in Taiwan.

It is concluded that the style of the upper management team and the leadership of the R&D manager are the main forces that determine R&D management practice, but that the educational background, work experience, and expertise of R&D managers do not distinguish the level of discipline or the sophistication of R&D management practice. Some aspects of R&D management practice, for example, the generation and utilization of technical reports and the cultivation of professional knowledge, can be reinforced by office support and alliance. With adequate resource support, more sophisticated R&D management practice does lead to better innovation performance as measured by the number of new products, patents, and technical reports.

The findings are derived only from the high‐tech industry in Taiwan. This regional limitation is inevitable in a single study. In the future, more regions can be investigated and compared.

R&D management practice links closely to innovation performance. Disciplined and sophisticated practice improves innovation performance in many ways under different contingencies.

R&D management practice was never a focus of study. This paper approaches the topic of innovation performance from this perspective and confirms its importance in many ways.

The paper aims to evaluate the real research and development (R&D) options value through the proposed model that can jointly consider the two types of risk management activities, i.e. hedging risks and making use of risks. Hedging is an important risk‐management tool that can diversify R&D risk internally since R&D organizations cannot transfer technological risks to another entity by conventional loss financing methods. Making use of risks means R&D organizations can benefit from proactively managing risks, and then can create management‐flexibility value from the real option reasoning viewpoint.

Using the real options pricing approach, the paper provides an applicable assessment method for R&D projects that can jointly consider the aforementioned two types of risk management activities. The paper also investigates the value‐enhancing effects of R&D risk management activities via interviews survey and secondary data analyses in the pharmaceutical industry of Taiwan.

Through numerical analyses, the results indicate that the hedging management can serve to be effective mechanisms of risk reduction as well as value enhancement for R&D projects. Additionally, the value‐enhancing effect of hedging management is more significant for those R&D projects with even higher risk‐level. The results of empirical study also are consistent with the model prediction.

To achieve great performance of R&D risk management, R&D organizations need to implement both the types of risk management activities. By this real‐options valuation approach incorporating together those risk management activities, R&D projects portfolio can be evaluated adequately.