An appraisal of R&D management research literature as the output of a virtual organisation

We have created a database of information about papers in a body of research publications on R&D management, and used this to examine the structure of research activity in the field. We found that different types of author tended to produce papers with different types of outcome and also that different authors appeared to subscribe to different schools of thought about the R&D management process. Researchers generally subscribed to different schools of thought from researching practitioners, which raises a question about the utility of this body of research for those who might be thought to be its intended beneficiaries.