Information exchange and governance structures in US and Japanese R&D consortia: institutional and organizational influences

Abstract

We examine institutional and organizational influences upon information exchange and governance structures within R&D consortia in the United States and Japan. We hypothesized that national differences in institutional environments would lead to less active governance and information-exchange activities within Japanese R&D consortia relative to their US counterparts. At the consortium level, we expected that internal consortium diversity would increase information exchange and governance requirements, and that structures stabilizing relations between consortium members would reduce information exchange and governance requirements. We tested these hypotheses on 39 US and 54 Japanese multifirm R&D consortia, involving, respectively, 1801 US member organizations and 1647 Japanese member organizations. Controlling for organizational age, size, and strategic focus, we found that internal diversity and interorganizational relations are both associated with information-exchange and governance mechanisms. Our model has much greater explanatory power for the United States than for Japan.