Protecting Knowledge in Partnerships: A Process-Based Approach

Industries of complex products are characterized by wide partnerships spanning several nations. In aerospace industry, the high costs of R&D phase, the need to enter new markets and to involve specialized skills, knowledge and capabilities pushed firms to establish and strengthen partnerships. Partnerships and new product development inside them are characterized many learning processes: partners have a lot of opportunities to learn from other partners. From „80s researchers, practitioners and governments are debating about the impact of the knowledge flows in partnerships on national economies. The numerous joint ventures between US, EU and Japanese firms raised the fear that these partnerships could threaten US knowledge and technological leadership. The competitiveness of the Japan aerospace industry and the birth of a significant Chinese aerospace industry are stressing US and EU firms‟ need of new knowledge protection strategies and techniques for global aerospace alliances and partnerships. The Innovative Design Foundation (IDF) project is aimed at analyzing the collaboration patterns looking for a new approach to knowledge protection in partnership. The pursued idea is that two learning processes take place: “learning from outside”, from data and information shared by partners, and “learning from inside”, form the assigned activities and tasks, while the knowledge flow is only a trigger or a booster of this learning activity. Following this approach, it became mandatory in partnership management to take a process-based view: the new product development process has to be decomposed, core phases and tasks have to be recognized, partners have to be selected with respect to their capability to face the challenges of the new product, but also with respect to competitive capabilities they will obtain at the end of the program.