Toward a theory of project interdependencies in high tech R&D environments

In today's intensely competitive market place, high technology firms are challenged with the task of managing multiple-concurrent research and development (R&D) projects with constrained resources. As success in the business world depends on the ability to do more with less, it is important for these high technology firms to understand why certain projects consume less monetary resources but still achieve superior product development outcomes. To address this question, we develop a theoretical framework for understanding the interdependencies between projects and their relationship to project performance in a multiple-concurrent R&D environment. The framework is developed through multiple-case studies of projects undertaken by a Fortune 500 high technology manufacturing firm. The seven projects that comprised the sample for the multiple-case study were chosen from a larger portfolio of projects belonging to a technology group at the firm's corporate R&D center. The choice of the seven projects was guided by a data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based project performance metric, also proposed in this paper. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.