Abstract
The R&D strategy of a business corporation should be linked to the general corporate policy in order that R&D activities contribute effectively to the corporate performance. The R&D division makes two distinct types of dialogue: one with sales/marketing divisions, and one with other technical divisions. On the assumption that functional integration and technical integration, generated by the respective types of dialogue, have great influences on the corporate performance, a questionnaire was prepared and sent to listed manufacturing companies for elucidating elements and structure of the dialogues. The result revealed that: 1. Functional integration contributes to the corporate performance; 2. Technical integration, as far as isolated, detracts from the corporate performance;3. Technical integration in combination with functional integration has a positive contribution to the corporate performance. It has been pointed out that the performance can be improved by modifying the interaction patterns between divisions, even without extending managerial resources.
