The Company That Changed Itself: R and D and the Transformations of DSM

In-house industrial research has long been one of the most striking features of the innovative processes that govern twentieth-century business development. In-house industrial research and development has seen its share of both spectacular successes and dismal failures, provoking essential questions: What are the pragmatic results of industrial research? Are there ways to make this research a more effective tool? In response, The Company That Changed Itself offers a fascinating case study of the Dutch chemical company DSM. Over the course of the past one hundred years DSM has transformed its company image and objectives—and industrial research has played a crucial role in all three of its major identity shifts, helping the company to diversify, maintain, and improve its existing businesses. Emphasizing a place for industrial research amid relations with other companies and other business divisions, this challenging volume presents an innovative new understanding of industry, identity, and the corporate culture of reinvention.