Innovation partnership models

The importance of composite technologies has been recognised by the major trend for major end producers forming joint venture partnerships with material and processing providers. The most visible has been the innovation partnership between BMW Group and SGL Group. This started with carbon fibres and carbon fibre fabrics in the BMW i model and is now moving into mainstream components for models such as the BMW 7 series. 

James Desveaux, University of California, Los Angeles You have outlined an impressive degree of innovation and adaptation. A question by another member of the audience has spawned curiosity for me about some organizational design issues, related to the different types of industrial partnerships permitted under the arrangements you described. What you have described sounds a lot like the kind of system that the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation in Austin put in place a number of years ago. In fact, what you have discussed even bears some resemblance to partnership innovations recently made by the partners of the Semiconductor Research Corporation. Where did the ideas come from for the collaborative iimovations that you outlined Did you actively scan other models To what extent are these models rephcable ... 

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