Technical collaboration between the Air Force's Rome Laboratory and industrial R&D units

This research sought to explain collaboration success in government-industry projects which jointly acquire technical knowledge and to understand whether the type of agreement between partners (binding or non-binding) and type of technology under development (software quality or photonics) affect R&D collaboration success. Investigated through case studies of four projects between the U.S. Air Force's Rome Laboratory and their industrial partners, the study was significant since it directly observes and documents the process of federal laboratory and industry collaboration.;Grounded theory developed from the analysis of the cases showed that successful collaboration was not only influenced by the actual interaction of the partners in the project, but was also dependent on the antecedents to that interaction. The pre-condition for collaboration was the innovation problem, which triggers action and influences motivations for collaboration. The collaborative interaction was affected by partner characteristics and partner interchange.;Overall findings of the research showed that antecedents to actual project implementation were key to successful projects and these antecedent factors lessened the expected differences between agreement types. Research results highlight factors which lead to successful collaboration and show the differences between agreement types and technology variety. Factors which positively affect success were: partner interchange (investment in project, shared vision and partner history), partner characteristics (level of aspiration), and motivations for collaboration (leverage and organization learning).;Differences arose in the comparison of types of agreements and technologies. The agreement types differed by the type of government technology to be transitioned (internal or external R&D), and their technical barriers (the relative maturity or immaturity of the technology, whether the technical concept has been proven and whether the technology was developed into a product). Technology type variations stemmed from market uncertainty (organization process change), motivation for the collaboration (desire for market development) and partner characteristics (research resource process and role of champion).;Future research suggested from the findings would investigate the antecedent factors uncovered in this study. The results suggest that federal laboratories should make collaborative R&D part of their long-term strategic plans and earmark resources to promote collaboration between potential partners.