A method for member selection of R&D teams using the individual and collaborative information Zhi-Ping Fan a , Bo Feng a, * , Zhong-Zhong Jiang a , Na Fu b a Department of Management Science and Engineering, School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, 3-11 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110004, China b Business School, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland article info Keywords: Member selection Collaborative information Individual information R&D team Bi-objective 0-1 programming Multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) abstract The member selection is an important decision problem in the formation of R&D teams. Selecting suitable members will facilitate the success of R&D projects. In the existing methods for partner selection, the individual information to measure the individual performance of members is mostly used, while the col- laborative information to measure the collaborative performance between members is seldom consid- ered. Therefore, this paper proposes a method for member selection of R&D teams, in which both the individual information of members and the collaborative information between members are considered. In order to select desired members, a bi-objective 0-1 programming model is built using the individual and collaborative information. To solve the model, a multi-objective genetic algorithm is developed since the model is NP-hard. A practical example followed by simulation experiment is used to illustrate the applicability of the proposed method. Additionally, the experimental results show that the proposed method can support satisfactory and high quality member selection. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Due to the growing pressure of global competition and increas- ing customer demands, R&D activities are becoming more impor- tant for firms and other institutes. They can contribute to a firm’s base of competencies through many ways such as developing new key technologies, renewing the firm’s portfolio of competen- cies, implementing strategies and so on (Liberatore & Stylianou, 1995; Quélin, 2000; Tian, Ma, & Liu, 2002). R&D should be regarded as an engine for innovation (Baker & Freeland, 1975). It is to be noted that R&D activities are typically executed in a project-man- agement-like approach, and the organizational nucleus is the team (Engelen, Kiewiet, & Terlouw, 2001; Griffin, 1997). Many research- ers focus on the study of R&D teams. Some of them paid attention to the factors which affect the R&D team performance, such as the stressor (Akgün, Byrne, Lynn, & Keskin, 2007; Gällstedt, 2003), motivation (Gällstedt, 2003), management support (Akgün et al., 2007; Levi & Slem, 1995), team culture (Chen & Chen, 2007), etc. Moreover, a number of researchers addressed the human resource management in R&D teams, such as evaluating and rewarding members based on their performance with respect to multiple attributes (Barczak & Wilemon, 2003), the relationship between team members’ proximity and teamwork (Hoegl & Proserpio, 2004), the role of leadership (Boies & Howell, 2006) and member- ships in teams (Lewis, 1998), etc. However, little studies have been found to solve the member selection problem of forming a R&D team (Tseng, Huang, Chu, & Gung, 2004). Selecting appropriate members for a R&D team is one of the major factors for the success of R&D projects (Raidén, Dainty, & Neale, 2004). Member selection problems of R&D teams widely spread with the increasing investments in R&D. For example, in China, to en- hance the national basic innovation capability, sharply increasing investments have been injected into R&D by the government and firms in recent years. In 2006, RMB 300.31 billion (Chinese Yuan) was invested in R&D in China, accounting for 1.42% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (http://www.stats.gov.cn). By part of the investments, 1409 National Key Technology R&D Programs (http://kjzc.jhgl.org), 2841 National High Technology Research and Development Programs (‘‘863” programs, http:// www.863.org.cn), 73 National Basic Research Programs (‘‘973” programs, http://www.973.gov.cn), 10271 National Natural Sci- ence Foundation Projects (NSFC http://www.nsfc.gov.cn) and so on were supported. Meanwhile, 7 new National Engineering Re- search Centers (http://www.cnerc.gov.cn) and 3 National Engi- neering Laboratories (http://www.chinalab.gov.cn) were built by foundational support from Chinese government. On the other hand, due to the growing pressure of global competition, more firms throw high light on R&D. R&D expenditure in companies hits RMB 213.45 billion in 2006. It needs to be pointed out that most of the R&D projects are carried out by R&D teams. To form the R&D team, member selection is necessary. 0957-4174/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2008.10.020 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 24 8368 7753; fax: +86 24 2389 1569. E-mail addresses: zpfan@mail.neu.edu.cn (Z.-P. Fan), msbofeng@yahoo.cn, neu_fengbo@163.com (B. Feng). Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 8313–8323 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Expert Systems with Applications journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa