Industrial Research—Where It's Been, Where It's Going

Abstract

OVERVIEW:The strong base of industrial research that was established from World War II to the mid-1970s faced increased demands resulting from expanding world markets and intense international competition. Those demands plus the increasing cost and complexity of technical advances resulted in a declining technical self-sufficiency for corporations, forcing industrial research to develop access to external sources of technical change. The growth of technical linkages between the corporations and outside organizations and the proliferation of joint ventures have brought industrial research into a new era. Technical strategy is no longer limited by the resources of a single corporation for generating or exploiting technical change. These conditions create new opportunities and challenges for the management of technology.