We set out to understand the information sharing practices that enable firms in the semiconductor and related industries to adjust to unanticipated changes, advances and setbacks affecting their independent programs of R&D. Such information sharing is arguably crucial if investments on the part of individual enterprises are to result in coherent and efficient outcomes at the level of a network of innovating firms. It is a topic that remains largely unexamined in studies of capital budgeting that focus primarily on how to value investments in R&D, rather how to manage them as long-term and highly uncertain processes of interactive decision making by sets of firms.
Our research is motivated by the challenge that firms face in exchanging such data without divulging proprietary knowledge or otherwise harming their individual interests.