Identifying key factors for success in R&D collaborations with an approach to the future in the MAPNA Group supply chain

Power plant industries are among the mother industries that research and development with the forward-looking perspective are crucial in which due to the rapid changes in technology. On the other hand, part of R&D is done within the supply chain of these industries. Finally, the power plant products success is strongly dependent on existing and future successful R&D collaborations in the supply chain. Mapna Group, as a manufacturer of power plant products, needs to develop research and development collaboration in its supply chain with a forward-looking approach in order to gain competitive advantage and to be present in the global markets. Since no research has been done in this regard, the purpose of this study is to identify the factors influencing the success of R&D collaborations in MAPNA Group Supply Chain. This research is a descriptive survey in terms of method, and is applied in terms of purpose. Factors affecting the R&D collaborations in the supply chain are extracted from overviewing the literature and the supply chain experts' viewpoints, and the questionnaire approved by the MAPNA Group’s Experts was distributed and results were analyzed by the confirmatory factor analysis with structural equations and PLS software. In this study, 8 key success factors in R&D collaboration were identified and wereconfirmed together with 25 indicators. According to the Network Analysis Process (ANP), the first priority is the integrated supply chain leadership, the second priority is the technology intelligence, and the next priorities respectively are the partner specificity factors, suppliers management, financial management, research and development management, legal obligations and IT management.