Discuss the factors a firm should consider when deciding how centralized research and development (R&D) should be. Address whether firms should employ both centralized and decentralized R&D. Each individual office is developing ideas specific to that region of the world where that office is located. Any successful projects then travel back to the central office for review and if management feels that there is a positive aspect to help other regions, the developments can be deployed there as well.

Centralized R&D:

• Single department
• Smaller workforce

De-centralized R&D:

• Many individual teams
• Many projects

Thoughts?