External R&D Supplier Evaluation and Selection: A Three-Stage Integrated Funnel Model

Abstract

Rapidly changing market demand has seen more and more companies pay attention to external R&D, to make full use of external resources, improve competitiveness, and promote innovation. The suitability of external R&D suppliers directly impacts the success of R&D. However, existing research in this topic has limitations. First, few existing studies have examined the evaluation and selection of external R&D suppliers, quantitatively. Second, there are few studies on the evaluation of effectiveness of R&D suppliers from the perspective of customer demand. Third, the evaluation of prototypes involves heterogeneous data for different technical criteria. As yet, there is no specific suitable model. To bridge abovementioned gaps, this article proposes a comprehensive three-stage integrated funnel model for external R&D supplier evaluation and selection. Specifically, it evaluates the effectiveness of suppliers from the perspective of customer demand and improves the nonradial superefficiency Pythagorean fuzzy DEA methodology. In addition, it proposes a novel fuzzy MA-VIKOR submodel based on heterogeneous data, which can evaluate suppliers from two perspectives: group utility and individual regret, while avoiding the potential problem of equal ranking. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed model is illustrated by an external R&D supplier selection case of Company J, an international communication equipment company.