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Strategies & Market Trends : The New Economy and its Winners -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (27532)	2/16/2006 3:06:13 PM
From: bob zagorin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57684

Kansas City Business Journal - 10:07 AM CST Thursday Study: Cost isn't main factor for offshoring R&D Intellectual capital and university collaboration, not just lower costs, are the main things that attract companies to move research and development activities to other countries, according to a study sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The study involved more than 200 multinational companies throughout 15 industries, mostly based in the United States and Western Europe, the foundation said in a written release Thursday. The study found that emerging nations such as China and India will continue to benefit from R&D expansion in the next three years as companies seek new market opportunities, access to top scientists and engineers, and collaborative research relationships with leading universities. Among the study's more surprising findings, researchers said, was the role university collaboration plays in the decision-making process for locating R&D facilities. That factor was particularly prevalent as a reason for expanding to emerging nations, even though they provide less intellectual property protection. The study also concluded that the United States must focus on highly skilled worker immigration. The study was released at a meeting of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable of the National Academies. Marie Thursby, professor of strategic management at Georgia Tech College of Management, and Jerry Thursby, chairman of Emory University's Department of Economics, conducted the study. The study was designed to identify and rank the importance of different factors in the corporate decision-making process about where to locate R&D facilities. It also tracked R&D work coming into the United States from abroad and leaving the United States for other countries; addressed favored nations for locating R&D work and why; and outlined expected trends for R&D expansion. Other factors that affect decisions about where to put new R&D facilities include market growth potential, quality of R&D talent and IP protection, the foundation said. All these factors are considered in the context of whether a nation is developed or emerging, the foundation said. In neither emerging nor developed countries was cost consideration the most important factor. This contradicts reports by various media outlets the past few years, the foundation said, including The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. "The United States would seem to have a comparative advantage in maintaining its innovative leadership through the high caliber of its scientists and its strong protection of IP," Lesa Mitchell, the Kauffman Foundation's vice president of advancing innovation, said in the release. "Industry and universities must be alert to removing obstacles to joint research, or emerging countries will overtake us in innovation breakthroughs, and the burst of discovery that has been driving our economy for the past half-century will be over."