Reaserch in the Company of the Future

In this chapter we focus on research and long term development. The elasticity concept, derived from marketing and production functions, is found to be applicable to the relationships between Research and Development (R&D) and specific businesses within the company such as the chemical business. Technology leaders expect that in the long term a reduction in R will lead to a much larger increase in D, and that an increase in R leads to a much larger increase in sales than would be the case from the same increase in D. This contrasts with a strongly negative correlation between interest rates and the industrial research budget. The co-operation between science and industry clusters around the European ‘hands on’ policy, the Japanese ‘active distributor’ policy, and the low performers ‘hermit’ behaviour. One of our strongest recommendations is the use of project-based research funding.