Inventivity

In an age when research and development (R&D) budgets and staffs are shrinking, research organizations committed to remaining competitive in the marketplace must emphasize productivity as never before. But what constitutes productivity? How does research relate to market share? How much time and money should be spent on a particular project? These are a few of the questions that are answered in this work. John Gilman provides readers with quantitative measures for R&D success. Here, he emphasizes the time-dependent value of research money, defining research productivity - or inventivity - as the rate of invention divided by the cost. Just as importantly, his book stimulates other questions regarding the R & D mission, including the meaning and purpose of research, its relationship to market share, the limits of researchers, and what lessons can be learned from history. This book should be of interest to managers of research projects in academic and industrial organizations.