Personnel Transfer in the Public/Private Research and Development (R & D) Sector

Abstract

With 2.3% and 2.4% of GNP spent on R & D in the US and in Germany respectively, the institutional network of R & D outfits has vastly expanded in the last decade or two. The large number of persons employed in R & D contrasts sharply with the low rates of basic innovation in these countries and of improvement innovations in many sectors of their economies (“the paradox of unutilized technologies”, M. Robbins).

As the need for innovation increases due to shifting demands and scarcity factors, new modes of organising “the imperfect market for precious technological information” are being developed; these are modes of facilitating the transfer of key personnel from within the public and/or private R & D sector to private or public firms where they (and the information they have) are more useful.