Utilization Assessments of Informal Networks for Firm’s R&D Center in Korea
Jin woo Yang, Gyunghyun Choi · Asia-pacific Journal of Convergent Research Interchange · 2023
The operation of a company's R&D department is to secure the independence and expertise of R&D personnel through R&D activities.And to maximize innovation performance.However, the achievement of this objective is not solely due to the expertise of R&D personnel.There is also a need for an organizational operation strategy that can promote the expertise of R&D personnel.Through embodied knowledge, R&D personnel perform complex and professional knowledge tasks and create technical systems.In addition, R&D personnel have the characteristic of solving problems mainly through personal contact.Therefore, informal network is needed for the knowledge exchange and transfer of R&D personnel.Based on this background, this study analyzes the utilization level of informal networks recognized by R&D organizations, and proposes measures to activate informal networks based on this.In order to achieve the research goal, informal networks were classified into communication networks, advice networks, and trust networks through prior research, and the characteristics of these three networks and the relationship between R&D and non-R&D differences and moreover differences by company size were analyzed separately.As a result of the analysis, significant differences in the use of informal networks were confirmed between R&D personnel and non-R&D personnel by company size, and a stark difference was found between small and large companies in the analysis of network utilization by R&D personnel.In this study, through these analysis results, a company-level informal network management plan was proposed to connect the use of informal networks to efficient operation, thereby increasing the contribution of this research.