Revising the definition of research and development in the light of the specificities of services

Abstract

Research and development (R&D) is underestimated in services. This article combines deductive and inductive approaches to formulate a new definition of R&D. The proposed revision does not fundamentally alter the structure of the current OECD definition, which is only marginally amended by making explicit certain implicit or insufficiently highlighted characteristics. In particular, it emphasises the importance of the social sciences and humanities and of design and development or organisational engineering, the composite nature of projects, and so on. Our objective is to attain a certain ‘psychological’ threshold that would mark our emancipation from the inertia of the still dominant industrialist and technologist approaches.