A core-competence-based r&d management approach within the context of national R&D policies: A case study of Technoparks

The success of R&D management not only depends on R&D infrastructure and investments, but also on the ability of organization to use resources and developing competence-based approaches to increase performance. The most important element in making an organization successful comparing to its competitive organizations is the realization of R&D management activities based on knowledge and core competencies, turning these core competencies into strategic values, being aware of basic skills and superiorities. Hence, the innovations providing benefits to both humans and social welfare should be in the centre of notice to increase them to a maturity level. Regarding national R&D policies, organizations' core competences should be consciously emphasized on and R&D activities' common and prioritized core competences should be reached in an appropriate way which is of great importance concerning national R&D performance increase. To provide strong and competitive advances in national R&D performance, it is essential to rehandle R&D policies with core competence-based strategies and effective usage of R&D brain power together by integrative approaches. In global R&D competition, the condition to be at the top is taking new approaches towards R&D management, appropriate modification of traditional R&D approaches using ecosystem logics putting professional R&D governance's approaches into action. In this study, the common and prioritized core competences of information system firms conducting R&D activities in Turkey's technoparks are identified and they are investigated in relation to R&D performance from the view of R&D management. This study was conducted to offer a new view of R&D management by determining the common and prioritized core competences in Turkey technoparks along with the understanding of their effects on R&D performance. For this, data were collected from 152 participants working in 12 R&D organizations from 4 different technoparks. In this research, some analyses were performed using correlation, regression and ANP methods. Results showed that there is a meaningfull and positive relationship between common and prioritized core competences and R&D performance for these organizations. Another result indicates that valuability, rarity, inimitability and non- substitutability attributes of common and prioritized core competences affect R&D performance. It is believed that managing the common core competences by prioritization in an integrated way causes serious improvements and sudden advances. Managing the common core competences of R&D activities as an integrated meaning after prioritization results in an increment in R&D performance and its reason should be distinguished.