The changing role of U.S. corporate research labs

Throughout the United States, central research laboratories are facing greater challenges than ever before. As budgets for research laboratories continue to shrink, corporations are demanding more - and faster - tangible results from their laboratories. As a result, research managers are looking for new ways to organize and motivate their programs. Almost every company is pursuing a different strategy. Nevertheless, across the board, managers are trying to pull research into tighter relationships with other divisions of the company. Some worry that a tighter focus on short-term efforts will eventually impair their company's long-term ability to turn out innovations. Others argue that real innovations will come about as research programs become more sensitive to their corporate parent's contemporary problems.