Assessing the Value of Research and Exploratory Development Stage of an R&D project under Duopoly and Oligopolistic Competition

In acquiring and transferring a superior knowledge assesing the intermediate result value of a competitive R&D project is very important for a firm engaging in R&D. Most existing literatures on R&D evaluation are concerned with project selection and resource allocation. In this paper the stage of an R&D project is classified into research, exploratory development, and development. And a model is suggested which evaluates the intermediate result value before completion of development stage under duopoly and oligopolistic competition. Assessed value of the intermediate result transferred to the next tier company can be used as a minimum acceptable price to the inventor when more advanced knowledge acquired through R&D is transferred to the next tier one. The model suggested is composed of structural variables including research cost, success rates, potential profits, discount rate degree of competition. By using exponential distribution for invertion process time in each stage, we derive a formula that can assess the value of the intermediate result, and we demonstrate how the model can be applied to a competitive R&D situation through an example.