Fourth-generation R&D: from linear models to flexible innovation

The management of research and development (R&D) has gone through a four-phase evolution. In the first phase, from its beginnings in the mid-19th century to the 1950s, R&D was largely based on serendipity and was isolated from other firm activities. In the second phase, in the 1950s and 1960s, the basic routines of project management were adopted. In the third phase, in the 1970s and 1980s, R&D became nonlinear as business development groups appeared within firms. In the final phase, in the 1980s and 1990s, technological alliances increased the nonlinear flows from outside the firm.