IT-enabled R&D in an international context, Frantz Rowe et Dove Te’eni (sous la direction de), Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014

This book examines innovation in a digital world. Nowadays, innovation and IT are intertwined. In order to understand how, this book addresses strategic and operational aspects of R&D and new product development, taking an interdisciplinary view of innovation in an international and digital world. The introduction develops a systemic view of innovation in this context and explains the choice of disciplines the editors chose to include in this book. From the discussions in this book, the editors identify four themes that emerge at the intersection of innovation and IT, especially in the international context. These themes are: knowledge management, configurational design, distance matters and diversity of agents and behaviors. From an economics and strategic management perspective, its first chapters deal with degree of openness, distance and specialization, and examine innovative performance in terms of patents, mergers-acquisitions and exports. The second part takes a configurational approach, either at a theoretical level for general design, or in a managerial way for implementing Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems. It also treats how communities of practice and PLM use in co-developed projects with China influence coordination, reliability and productivity. In the third part, which considers the operational level, the issues of diversity and distance are addressed more specifically and in an international context. The final chapter offers a perspective on knowledge accumulation and value in NPD projects. The conclusion proposes new avenues for research which should only be interpreted as indicative of the unlimited and probably very enduring richness of research questions relevant to innovation and information systems in an international context.