The purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between research and development (R&D)-funded innovation efforts and operational-level lean improvement efforts through the lens of the Resource-Based View (RBV), with a focus on the relationship between them. Does the “leaning” of a firm’s operations create barriers to change and inhibit the success of R&D-led innovation investment? Or, does the “leaning” of operations help organisations focus on priorities and simplify routines so that new R&D efforts are more effective? Our analysis of more than 850 firm-years’ worth of data showed that the relationship between lean and R&D productivity is nonlinear, specifically an inverted U-shape (concave). Leanness provides some early R&D productivity improvement benefits, but R&D productivity levelled then declined over time. In a follow-up industry-level analysis, we found that the effects of leanness on firm-level R&D productivity differed by industry, with some industries seeing evidence of positive effects from lean practices and others experiencing negative effects on R&D productivity from lean.

中文翻译：

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互补或冲突：研发和精益创新方法

本研究的目的是通过基于资源的观点 (RBV) 的视角探索研发 (R&D) 资助的创新工作与运营层面的精益改进工作之间的关系，重点关注它们之间的关系。公司运营的“倾斜”是否会为变革创造障碍并抑制以研发为主导的创新投资的成功？或者，运营的“倾斜”是否有助于组织专注于优先事项并简化日常工作，从而使新的研发工作更加有效？我们对超过 850 个公司年的数据的分析表明，精益和研发生产力之间的关系是非线性的，特别是倒 U 形（凹形）。精益提供了一些早期研发生产力提高的好处，但研发 D 生产力水平，然后随着时间的推移而下降。在后续的行业层面分析中，我们发现精益对企业层面研发生产力的影响因行业而异，一些行业看到精益实践产生积极影响的证据，而另一些行业则发现精益对研发生产力产生负面影响。