R&D Value Mapping (RVM)

R&D Value Mapping (RVM)

🔥NEW Another form of value mapping can be found in the field of Research and Development.
In the field of R&D, many research evaluation techniques have been developed to analyze the impact of R&D on society and the economy. One of the most important techniques is the case study technique, but nevertheless this technique has its disadvantages.
In an article “R&D Value Mapping: A New Approach to Case Study-Based Evaluation, the authors present an approach called R&D Value Mapping, that uses the case study technique to give in-depth insights and simultaneously structuring these case studies in an analytical framework yielding quantitative and thus more objective data. This measurement involves the following nine procedures:
1. Generating analytical models that analyze possible knowledge flows and predicting possible results of R&D projects.
2. Developing hypotheses about the causal factors associated to those results.
3. Establishing cost and benefit indicators from certain projects and its results.
4. Selecting cases based on the generated model and hypotheses.
5. Data gathering.
6. Organizing data: Writing down traditional case studies.
7. Code the written case studies according to the variables of the model so that a quantitative database can be created.
8. Validating the data codes.
9. Determination of the relationship of all autonomous variables to the flows of knowledge, the project results and the costs and benefits by using the quantitative data in association with the models established.
The main reason for the success of RVM is because it starts with models based on theory that depict the knowledge flows of impacts from certain R&D projects. The models are adapted continually so as to inculcate learning.
Source: Bozeman, B, and G. Kingsley. (1997) “R&D Value Mapping: A New Approach to Case Study-Based Evaluation. The Journal of Technology Transfer.