Cette thèse présente trois chapitres qui mobilisent un cadre d’analyse évolutionniste et qui étudient empiriquement la relation « innovation-performance » à partir de données CIS. Nous souhaitons montrer que les sources de l’innovation et les méthodes d’appropriation varient en fonction des secteurs d’activité et des stratégies d’innovation des firmes. Dans un premier temps, nous décrivons les tendances de l’innovation à partir de quatre vagues d’enquêtes CIS (1994-2006) et nous analysons la persistance de l’innovation sur un échantillon de 431 firmes avec une régression logistique binaire. Nous montrons que la persistance de l’innovation est plus élevée pour les firmes qui innovent en produits car ces firmes sont contraintes d’investir de manière continue dans des projets d’innovation pour rester compétitives. Les firmes qui innovent en procédés sont moins persistantes car leur stratégie est plus orientée vers des ajustements de la qualité des produits ainsi que vers l’amélioration des processus de production. Les deux derniers essais explorent avec la méthode des doubles moindres carrés le lien innovation-performance économique sur un échantillon de 7 742 firmes portant sur la période 2002-2005. Nous expliquons que la source principale de l’innovation des firmes à « forte intensité scientifique » est la R&D, d’une part, et que les méthodes d’appropriation des rentes de l’innovation passent par l’acquisition d’actifs complémentaires (tels que l’utilisation combinée de titres de propriété intellectuelle et de secrets de fabrication), d’autre part. En revanche, les firmes dans les autres catégories (notamment celles à fortes économies d’échelle) fondent leurs avancées technologiques sur des sources externes de l’innovation telles que les concurrents, les fournisseurs et les utilisateurs avancés. De plus, ces firmes utilisent de manière plus importante des méthodes d’appropriation commerciale telles que les marques ou les stratégies marketing, car leurs produits sont moins exposés au risque d’imitation certes, mais aussi parce qu’elles sont sensibles aux changements de coûts. / This thesis is structured in three essays based on evolutionary theoretical grounds and provides empirical evidence from CIS. It aims at showing that the sources of innovation and the appropriation of innovation rents vary in function of firms’ activities and innovation strategies.In essay 1, we describe four waves of CIS, covering the period 1994-2006 and we study persistent innovation behavior with a discrete choice model on a data set of 431 firms. We find that innovation persistence is more important for product innovators because they need novel products to be more competitive and therefore enrich their base of knowledge continuously. By contrast, process innovators are less persistent because innovation strategy is less “market” oriented and intends to meet quality or production adjustments. The two last essays explore with the two stage least squares method how firms benefit economically from their innovations on a sample of 7 742 firms, on the period 2002-2005. We show that science-based firms rely more on R&D investments to develop their products and maintain their leads by acquiring complementary assets, i.e. they use mixed methods to appropriate the rents of innovation (the combined use IPRs and strategic methods for instance secrecy). By contrast, firms in other categories (for instance firms using cost-cutting strategies) draw more on external sources of knowledge coming either from suppliers or advanced users. Additionally, these firms use more extensively trademarks or non technological methods of appropriation (as marketing devices), because they are less exposed to potential imitation and because they are price sensitive.

Submitted by Joana Azevedo (joanad@id.uff.br) on 2017-09-01T15:21:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Eduardo de Assumpção Silva.pdf: 1604099 bytes, checksum: 47a7b2843f5729ca0a320602bc1c384e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Biblioteca da Escola de Engenharia (bee@ndc.uff.br) on 2017-09-04T13:30:26Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Eduardo de Assumpção Silva.pdf: 1604099 bytes, checksum: 47a7b2843f5729ca0a320602bc1c384e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-04T13:30:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissert Eduardo de Assumpção Silva.pdf: 1604099 bytes, checksum: 47a7b2843f5729ca0a320602bc1c384e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-07-18 / A ciência e a tecnologia têm relação direta com o desenvolvimento de um país. Os projetos de pesquisa e desenvolvimento na CNEN são financiados pelos recursos diretos do orçamento da União e das Agências de Fomento como a FINEP e o CNPq. De um modo geral os gerentes de projetos acreditam que conseguem ter sucesso quando completam um projeto no prazo programado, no orçamento e nos requisitos previstos, que é comumente conhecido como “restrição tripla” ou “triângulo de ferro”. Entretanto, na revisão da literatura verificou-se outros critérios de avaliação do sucesso nos projetos, como os benefícios gerados à sociedade, o desenvolvimento das capacidades da equipe, as oportunidades futuras, novas tecnologias, entre outros. Diante dessa questão, buscando auxiliar o gestor na avaliação dessa tipologia de projetos, a pesquisa propôs um modelo com critérios e requisitos baseado na revisão da literatura e buscou através de um questionário medir os graus de importância e de utilização desses critérios junto aos especialistas da CNEN, que atuam diretamente na execução desses projetos. Os resultados revelaram que os critérios propostos no modelo possuem um grau de importância alto, com uma queda em relação à utilização, indicando que os critérios utilizados no modelo podem auxiliar os gestores na avaliação dessa tipologia de projeto. / Science and technology are directly related to the development of a country. The research and development projects at CNEN are financed by the direct resources of the budget of the Union and of the Development Agencies such as FINEP and CNPq. In general, project managers believe they can succeed when they complete a project within the programmed schedule, budget, and anticipated requirements, which is commonly known as a "triple constraint" or "iron triangle." However, in the review of the literature, other criteria for evaluation of success in projects, such as the benefits generated by society, the development of the team's capabilities, future opportunities, new technologies, among others, were verified. Faced with this question, seeking to assist the manager in the evaluation of this typology of projects, the research proposed a model with criteria and requirements based on the literature review and sought through a questionnaire to measure the degrees of importance and use of these criteria with the specialists of CNEN , Which act directly in the execution of these projects. The results showed that the criteria proposed in the model have a high degree of importance, with a decrease in relation to the use, indicating that the criteria used in the model can help managers in the evaluation of this type of project.

本研究係研究技術策略規劃的規劃過程，由探討技術策略規劃的內容模式，歸納出技術策略規劃過程的幾個重要課題及活動，包括技術狀況的瞭解、關鍵技術的掌握、技術預測、技術來源、技術需求分析、技術創新機會、技術策略和經營策略的配合、技術策略融入企業整體策略規劃，並建立技術策略規劃的程序過程。 　　本研究以國內重視科技及研發的公司為研究對象，探討這些企業技術策略規劃的實際程序，以及這些企業在技術策略規劃重要課題活動的管理，最後並嘗試建立一技術策略規劃的整合性工具方法－技術策略規劃檢核表，以為一個公司有心從事技術策略規劃的輔助性工具。 　　本研究的結論包括：公司型態影響公司的技術策略規劃，跨國公司集團、或公司集團的子公司，技術策略規劃時自由度較低，本土公司技術策略規劃時自由度較高；經營資源多的公司，在從事技術策略規劃時較能不受限制，經營資源少的公司限制多；創新型的公司技術策略規劃的過程，強調快速、彈性，製造型的公司技術策略規劃的過程，強調有步驟、循序漸進；技術策略規劃應由公司的事業中長期計畫、研發中長期計畫展開，確保技術策略規劃融入事業整體規劃中。

本研究以區域創新系統觀點，分析在兩岸區位優勢差異下，影響台灣製造業廠商兩岸研發區位選擇及廠商研發網絡治理情形，強化既往研究未同時關注台商、兩岸地區及偏重個案研究的不足之處；經實證結果發現，區位優勢、研發部門類型、市場規模、政策條件、產業群聚、知識流通及研發經費投入等變數為台商兩岸研發區位佈點的影響變數，除了市場規模及市場型研發部門與研發區位選擇呈現負向關係外，其他皆與區位選擇呈現正向關係，顯示除因台灣市場規模太小造成台商選擇至對岸設立研發部門外，台灣在其他表現上皆較對岸具有吸引力，台灣仍具有不可忽視的區域創新能量，建議政府部門應在產業政策上有新作為，提供廠商各項研發所需要的協助，以吸引更多本土企業於台灣設立研發部門，以不斷累積及提升台灣的研發競爭力。 區域創新系統強調區域內行動者的網絡連結及互動，形塑該地區無可取代的區域特色，為彌補研發區位選擇的量化研究，無法表達出區域創新系統內廠商在地化網絡連結及互動的情況，本研究在研發網絡治理部分以華碩企業集團為研究對象，探討其如何運用本身及當地資源，建立在地化網絡及維持網絡關係運作等網絡治理議題，經研究結果發現，由於華碩企業集團具有豐富的研發經驗、高水準的研發人員及雄厚的資金，扮演在地化網絡主要行動者的角色，掌握與其他行動者（例如政府部門、研究機構、大專院校及其他廠商等）間關係建立的主導權，在研發技術的傳遞上係以公司內部的垂直組織網絡為主要傳遞路徑，與區域創新系統內各行動者的網絡關係及在地鑲嵌程度不強。 / With the viewpoint of regional innovation system, this paper analyzes the impacts of R&D locational choices and enterporises’ R&D network governance that manufacturing firms in Taiwan have under the differentiation of locational advantages between China and Taiwan as well as consolidates some points which are incompletely focused in the past on Taiwanese firms, two sides of Taiwan Strait, and overweighing case-studies. The empirical evidences bring that the impacts of variable to locational distribution of Taiwanese manufacturing firms across the strait are many: locational advantages, the types of R&D unit, the scales of market, policy conditions, industrial clusters, knowledge flows and R&D investment. Except for the negative correlations between the scale of market/type of R&D unit and R&D locational choices, the rest variables have the positive correlation with R&D locational choices, which means that, barring that the scale of market in Taiwan is so small that Taiwanese firms choose to institute R&D spots in China, other variables in Taiwan are more attractive than those in China; Taiwan possesses innegligible energy of regional creativity. The suggestion is that the government has to take new actions on industrial policy, providing the assistance to R&D that enterprises need, in order to attract more and more local enterprises to set up their R&D functions in Taiwan for accumulating and advancing Taiwan’s competitive power continuously. Regional innovation system emphasizes on actors’ network linkages and interactions within one region, shaping irreplaceable regional characteristics for that region in order to atone for the quantitative research of R&D locational choices which cannot express the situation of enterprises’ localized network linkages and interactions within regional innovation system. Taking ASUS as example, this research, in terms of network governance, confers how ASUS draws on own and local resources for network governance issues like establishing localized networks and maintaining the operation of network relations. After the analysis, it is found that, on account of ASUS with abundant R&D experiences, high-level R&D staffs and tremendous funds, ASUS plays the role as key actor in the localized network, controlling the predominant power established by relations between other actors (i.e. public sectors, research institutes, colleges/universities, other enterprises and so on). In terms of R&D technology transfer, vertical networks in the inner company as main transfer passage is less attached with every actor’s network relation and its local embeddedness within regional innovation system.

This thesis consists of five individual essays and an introductory chapter. The essays are all in the field of industrial dynamics and more specifically focus on firm entry and exit in Swedish industrial sectors. The essays mainly contribute to the empirical literature on entry and exit. In four of the five essays, panel data methods are used in the empirical investigation. The first essay presents the patterns of entry and exit in industrial sectors in Sweden and studies the importance of different determinants of entry and exit rates in industries. The second essay focuses on the relationship between entry and exit. The third essay has a regional perspective, focusing on regional determinants of entry and exit. It also investigates the importance of the differences in industry structure for differences in entry and exit rates across regions. The fourth chapter uses the theory of product life cycle to investigate how knowledge intensity differs in entering and exiting firms in different stages of the product life cycle. The fifth and last essay focuses on the importance of firm demography, in terms of firm size and age, for the decision to perform process R&D, product R&D or combine process with product R&D.

根據KPMG的研究顯示(2014)，生技製藥廠商間的合作是產業發展的趨勢，但合作的目的已經從原先的降低成本，發展到加速創新的產生。眾多國際製藥公司已經與外部夥伴進行合作，其中合作研發最能發揮合作夥伴間的效用，越緊密的合作越能使得合作網絡中多樣化的技術、能力結合，從而增強對於未被滿足醫療需求的理解。由此可見，跨國研發合作成為全球生技製藥廠商的企業策略。過去已有許多學者研究我國科技產業與國際廠商之研發合作，但甚少探究生技製藥廠商與國際生技製藥廠商間的研發合作。 本研究選定具有跨國研發合作豐富經驗的台灣生技製藥廠商為研究對象，探討其企業策略、核心能力及跨國研發動機如何影響跨國研發合作的管理。本研究從跨國研發合作影響因子以及跨國研發合作管理之內容兩個構面探討台灣生技製藥廠商與國際生技製藥廠商進行研發合作的互動關係。研究方法採取多重個案研究法，文獻探討部分包含生技製藥產業、企業策略與核心能力、國際研發合作、合作夥伴篩選因素、知識移轉與智財管理，研究者結合研究問題與文獻回顧導出觀念性研究架構，再依研究架構為主軸進行個案訪談與資料收集，實地深入訪談我國兩家生技製藥廠商，得出以下結論： 本研究發現，台灣生技製藥廠商與國際生技製藥廠商研進行發合作的動機一致，為降低及分散風險、分攤固定成本、技術與資源的互補與移轉、夥伴間營運策略的互補與相容性。篩選合作夥伴的主要考量也大致相同，包含資源及技術的互補、過往合作經驗、夥伴間營運策略的互補及相容性及財務能力。另外核心技術能力會影響台灣生技製藥廠商與合作夥伴合作起始的階段，研發合作起始階段的差異，更會影響知識移轉機制、以及合作方式的不同。另外，本研究也發現到，台灣生技製藥廠商在國際合作夥伴上的選擇會以不具直接競爭關係者為主，且與合作夥伴選擇以營業秘密的方式來保護技術知識。 / According to the research of KPMG in 2014, R&D collaboration between biopharmaceutical firms is the trend of biopharmaceutical industry. Under the circumstance of globalization, product life-cycles are gradually shortening. The purpose of R&D collaboration change from cost reduction to speeding up innovation. Therefore, multinational R&D collaboration has become a global business strategy for biopharmaceutical firms. Most of the past studies of multinational R&D collaboration focus on ICT industry in Taiwan. Few specially investigate biopharmaceutical industry. Consequently, a research gap can be found as multinational R&D collaborating between biopharmaceutical firms of Taiwan and biopharmaceutical firms of other countries. This research focus on the biopharmaceutical firms of Taiwan, explore how multinational R&D collaboration influence factors (business strategy, core competencies and the motivation of multinational R&D collaboration) affect multinational R&D collaboration management of firms. This research adopts two biopharmaceutical firms in Taiwan as case studies and conducts interviews with managers to understand multinational R&D collaboration influence factors and multinational R&D collaboration management. The conclusions of this research are as below: This research finds out that the motivations of multinational R&D collaboration of Taiwan firms are coincident, including cost reduction, diversification of risk, resources and technologies complementarity. The evaluations of partner selecting are also coincident, including resources and technologies complementarity, collaboration experience, operating strategy complementarity and financial capability. In addition, core competencies may affect the initiation stage of R&D collaboration and the initiation stage of R&D collaboration may affect the mechanisms of knowledge transfer and the way of multinational collaboration. Moreover, this research also found out that the biopharmaceutical firms of Taiwan might primarily choose to collaborate with international partners who have indirect competitive relationship with them. Last, the biopharmaceutical firms of Taiwan and their partners protect their intellectual property in the way of trade secret.

近年來，研究廠商創新之觀點，從以往之產業群聚移轉至網絡演化，然而，影響網絡形成與演化之因素於以往探討廠商創新能力的相關文獻中較少受到關注，而合作，即為網絡關係的一種型態。從個體的角度觀之，廠商的合作行為往往面臨資訊不對稱的情形，因此本研究從廠商資訊不對稱的觀點出發，引入管理學門中訊號理論(signaling theory)的觀點，解構廠商訊息以及廠商過去所累積的社會資本與研發合作網絡建立之關聯性。並探討不同型態的空間地域屬性對於合作網絡的形成是否有所影響。 本研究以台灣ICT廠商為研究對象，該產業不僅在我國經濟發展的過程中扮演重要的角色，於世界的資訊科技產業鏈中亦占有一席之地。並且有著技術上需要持續創新，並且注重分工合作的特性。資料蒐集採用二手資料的方式，建立近似於整體性的廠商技術網絡資料以及廠商基本屬性資料，分析方法以社會網絡分析法、Pair-t檢定以及卜瓦松迴歸模型進行假說驗證。實證分析結果顯示廠商訊息的揭露對於合作網絡的建立有正面影響效果，並且廠商對於研究發展的相關訊號-研發資產的投入，有助於吸引其他廠商和其建立合作網絡的關係；而廠商於過去累積的網絡地位亦有助於合作網絡的形成。最後在空間地域屬性方面，實證結果顯示空間地域屬性對於廠商合作網絡的建立存在影響效果，創新氛圍較強的產業地域有助於廠商研發合作網絡的建立；此外，廠商若位於高網絡密度的產業群聚內部亦有助於其建立合作網絡，顯示廠商區位的挑選對於其外部網絡關係存在影響效果。 / In recent year, the research topic of firm's innovation is transformed from industry cluster to network evolution. However, the factor of network evolution was less mentioned in past research , and the cooperation activity is one type of network relationship.From the perspective of the individual , firm often faces the condition of information asymmetry , while cooperating with others. So our research begin with this problem, and we introduce signaling theory to understand the relation between R&D alliance and firm’s signal or social capital and also discuss whether different types of geography character have the effect on R&D alliance formation. This research concerns Taiwan’s ICT industry as study object. Taiwan’s ICT industry not only plays an important role in Taiwan’s economic development but also is a key part of the global ICT industry chain. Besides, ICT industry has the character of technical innovation and work division, so the firm’s cooperation behavior is important.We use secondary data to build the database, using SNA, pair-t test and poisson regression to analyze. The result shows that the information reveals a positive effect on alliance formation. In addition, firms investing in the property of research and their accumulating of network position in the past have the positive effect on R&D alliance formation. Finally, the result also shows that firm located on high-innovation and high network density environment is more easily to help them find the R&D alliance partner. It shows that firm’s choice of location affects the outside network relation.

為了維護全球經濟的穩定與公平，近年來各國無不致力於反壟斷政策的執行，以期有效打擊卡特爾式的企業聯合行為。本文從三種不同的環境條件下，逐一探討採取聯合行為的廠商和反托拉斯政府之間的互動情況。透過本研究可發現，廠商在以利潤為優先考量下，來決定是否採取聯合結盟，以及合法或非法的合作型態。此外，為了朝全社會效率極大的目標邁進，本文針對三種環境設定下的均衡結果進行效率性的比較，得知其差異的成因在於政府和廠商報酬差異的大小。 / In order to keep the stability and fairness of global economy, most of the authorities around the world have been fighting for cutting down cartels by implementing Antitrust/Competition Law. In this paper, we analyze the interaction between joint ventures and antitrust authorities in three different cases. And we find that profit always takes priority in firms’ decision, no matter how the economic environment changes. Finally, in discussing social utility, we compare efficiency among the three cases, and reach our conclusion that the difference of government’s and firm’s return causes the efficiency or non-efficiency of those optimal strategies.

Cette thèse aborde l’impact du private equity sur la gouvernance des entreprises (chapitres 1 et 2) et les déterminants du capital risque (chapitre 3). Les deux premiers chapitres examinent les changements que les capital-investisseurs introduisent dans la gouvernance des entreprises (en termes de remplacement du dirigeant) suite à une opération Public-to-Private. Les résultats empiriques montrent que (i) les entreprises soutenues par private equity exercent un suivi plus actif et sont plus susceptibles de licencier le dirigeant que les compagnies cotées (chapitre 1) (ii) les entreprises soutenues par des firmes de private equity plus spécialisées (en termes de secteur d’activité) ont moins tendance à licencier leur dirigeant que les entreprises soutenues par des firmes de private equity plus généralistes (chapitre 2). Du point de vue de la théorie, les résultats montrent que le taux de remplacement du directeur général et la sensibilité du départ du dirigeant à la performance sont plus élevés dans les entreprises soutenues par private equity que dans les compagnies cotées (chapitre 1). Ce résultat va dans le sens de l'hypothèse de contrôle, qui affirme que la structure de propriété plus concentrée des entreprises soutenues par private equity induit un contrôle plus fort des actionnaires et un remplacement plus fréquent du dirigeant en cas de faible performance que la structure de propriété dispersée des entreprises cotées. Pour les entreprises ayant des structures de propriété concentrées similaires (i. e., notre échantillon de compagnies soutenues par private equity du Chapitre 2), nos résultats empiriques confortent plutôt l’hypothèse de « l'information interne » avancée par Cornelli et Karakas (2015). Cette théorie suggère que les investisseurs sophistiqués (en particulier les firmes de private equity spécialisées) sont plus enclins à utiliser de l’information «soft» (interne) pour évaluer la compétence du directeur général et pour décider de son remplacement. A contrario, les investisseurs moins sophistiqués auraient tendance à privilégier de l’information «hard», par exemple la performance financière relative de l'entreprise (par rapport à des firmes similaires). Enfin, le Chapitre 3 est lié aux débats sur les déterminants du développement du capital-risque. Nous essayons d'évaluer la façon dont les mécanismes de soutien gouvernemental à l'innovation ont un impact sur les investissements en capital-risque. Nous examinons également l’effet modérateur de l'environnement institutionnel sur la relation entre les dépenses gouvernementales en recherche et développement (R&D) et le capital-risque. Nos résultats montrent qu'un niveau plus élevé de dépenses gouvernementales en R&D entraîne un niveau plus élevé d'investissements en capital-risque. Nous trouvons également une relation positive entre la qualité des institutions formelles et le montant des investissements en capital-risque early-stage. Contrairement aux résultats attendus, la qualité de l’environnement institutionnel a un effet modérateur négatif sur la relation entre les dépenses gouvernementales en R&D et le niveau des investissements en capital-risque. Ce résultat suggère qu’en présence d'institutions formelles hautement développées les opportunités technologiques mesurées par les dépenses gouvernementales en R&D n'ont aucun effet stimulant sur le développement du capital-risque. / This PhD thesis addresses the effects of private equity on corporate governance (Chapter 1 and 2) and the determinants of Venture Capital (VC) investments (Chapter 3). The first two chapters examine the changes that private equity investors introduce in the governance of their portfolio companies (in terms of CEO turnover) after a Public-to-Private (PTP) operation. Our empirical results show that (i) PE-backed companies exert a more active monitoring, and are more likely to dismiss their CEO than public firms (Chapter 1) (ii) PE-backed companies with more specialized investors are less likely to dismiss their CEO than other PE-backed companies (Chapter 2). From a theory perspective, the findings that CEO turnover rate and CEO turnover-performance sensitivity are higher in PE-backed companies comparing with public firms (Chapter 1) seem to support the ‘control hypothesis’, i.e., the contention that the concentrated (and illiquid) ownership structure of PE-backed companies provides stronger shareholder monitoring and a tighter control for poor performance than the dispersed ownership structure of public firms. For companies with similar concentrated ownership structures (i.e., our sample of PE-backed companies in Chapter 2), our results rather support the ‘inside information hypothesis’ of boards advanced by Cornelli and Karakas (2015). This theory suggests that sophisticated investors (e.g. specialized PE firms) are more likely to use ‘soft’ (inside) information when they evaluate the CEO’s competence and the decision to dismiss the CEO. In contrast, less sophisticated investors are more likely to base their decision on ‘hard’ information, e.g., the firm’s performance relative to its peers. Finally, Chapter 3 is related to debate on the determinants of venture capital development. We try to assess how particular mechanisms of governmental support to innovation impact VC investments, and whether the institutional environment moderates the relationship between governmental R&D and VC investments. Our results show that higher level of governmental R&D expenditures lead to higher level of VC investments. We found also that higher quality of formal institutions is associated with higher level of early stage VC activity. Contrary to what was expected, the quality of the institutional environment has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between governmental R&D expenditures and VC activity. A possible interpretation of this result is that in the presence of highly developed formal institutions the technological opportunities measured by governmental R&D expenditures have no stimulating effect on venture capital development.

Nous basant sur plusieurs études de cas effectuées au sein de communautés R&D virtuelles d'Alstom Power Hydro, nous démontrons d'une part, qu'un forum peut soutenir différents types d'intéractions allant de la transmission d'informations à la co-construction de connaissances et co-production de solution. Opérationnalisant et améliorant des grilles scientifiques visant à caractériser des communautés de pratiques virtuelles, nous démontrons aussi, qu'il existe un lien entre la configuration d'une communauté et le type de ses intéractions en ligne. Nous démontrons qu’il existe une configuration optimale, de communautés de pratiques virtuelles appliquées à la R&D, qui garantit des intéractions de type co-construction de connaissance et co-production de solution entre ses membres. A l'heure où Microsoft équipe chaque jour 20000 nouveaux utilisateurs de l'application Share point, cette thèse prend tout sens. En opérationnalisant une méthode d'évaluation des communautés de pratiques virtuelles, et en apportant des conseils pour déployer un forum appliqué à la R&D, nous accompagnons tout projet de création de communauté R&D virtuelle et/ou d'instrumentation de ses intéractions par un forum. / In this dissertation, we explore the potential of a forum to support collaboration and knowledge sharing among Virtual Communities of practice. We thus propose a coding scheme based on the Rainbow model and test it in order to analyze the content of two forums of R&D VcoP. We demonstrate that a forum supports asynchronous argumentative activities and thus enhances global collaboration and knowledge sharing among R&D VcoP members. We then propose an enriched model based on the work of Line Dube and tested it to characterize the R&D VcoP studied. We prove that the community configuration has a direct impact on the online dynamic of the community. We point out the main factors that play a key role in fostering online collaboration and knowledge sharing between R&D Virtual community members.