Innovation-Expansion In The ICT-Industries: R&D Acquisition And Integration Success From A Knowledge Perspective

This paper investigates the role of early stage integration mechanisms in acquisitions where the prime goal is to acquire the research and development capabilities of the target firm, i.e. the knowledge of the target firm. We term this transaction ‘R&D acquisition’. This is most relevant for industries with extreme hunger for external knowledge like the IT-, telecommunicationand media(ICT) industries. Based on a review of the related knowledge transfer and post merger integration literature and based on an existing model for clustering R&D units by Birkinshaw (2002), we develop a testable model for the relationship between the choice of early stage integration mechanisms and R&D acquisition success. We argue that this relationship is moderated by the knowledge characteristics of the target firm. We suggest specific early acquisition integration mechanisms for the successful integration of three distinct and practically observable target firm R&D constellations. We illustrate our model with a telecommunication case example.