LIBRI DI FABRIZIO CESARONI

High-tech marketing concepts can be useful to understand important aspects of R&D and technology management. This is due to the fact that the acquisition, improvement and exploitation of intangible assets have become critical for firms’ competitiveness. Firms can leverage their R&D investment both internally and externally, as direct producers or buyers and sellers on markets for technologies. Intangible assets are the object of complex transactions and key complementary assets to combine with new innovations. Strategic decisions in technology marketing take into account factors such as the phase of evolution of a technology and the firm’s position with respect to incumbents. This paper offers a theoretical framework to differentiate four possible scenarios, according to the type of innovations, the control over complementary assets and the presence of a dominant paradigm for the exploitation of a technology. The cases of four large industrial R&D labs are used to illustrate these possible scenarios. An effective marketing strategy, clear leadership, and attention to intellectual property issues seem to emerge as determinant factors of success.