This book develops and illustrates a comprehensive, multi-level framework for the evaluation of industrial research and development (R&D) activities and the measurement of their performance. The framework encompasses a set of hierarchical, interrelated levels at which R&D evaluation and performance measurement could be undertaken. This enlightening book focuses on the single industrial firm to study performance measurement of R&D functions, projects and individual researchers or engineers. It also addresses R&D evaluation from the point of view of financial markets, with a focus on the relationship between R&D investments and the value of the traded firm. The book broadens tin scope to study the role of technology platforms as R&D coordination mechanisms and also looks at the evaluation of R&D policies. This book will be warmly welcomed by researchers and postgraduate students in disciplines concerned with innovation management, technology policy, and finance who wish to gain an updated overview of R&D evaluation and performance measurement as well as exploring different units of analysis.

The work aims to develop an understanding of how decisions taken during the commercialisation and market launch of new high-tech products can affect their market success. By drawing into diffusion of innovation theories, innovation management and marketing research, the work presents the cases of 16 consumer innovations and 10 industrial new products and discusses the reasons underlying superior customer acceptance. The emerging theory developed in this work illustrates the key role played by the early adopters of the innovation for their market success, as well as the impact that market interconnectedness has on diffusion processes. Implications for researchers and managers are discussed at length in the work.

The concept of open innovation (OI) has become a very popular topic during the last decade, with increasing number of SMEs embracing OI practices to gain competitive advantage. This edited volume is a timely opportunity to gather research on OI in SMEs, to investigate how OI is managed and implemented to determine the peculiarities compared to OI management in large companies, and to specify the consequences for future OI research.The book offers insights into the following topics: The state of the art on open innovation in SMEs; adopting open innovation in SMEs; interorganizational networks and innovation ecosystems; sectoral patterns of open innovation in SMEs; and measuring, evaluating and stimulating open innovation in SMEs.