A quantitative assessment of innovation dynamics and R and D management in Japanese and West German telecommunications

Among the industrial countries, different working divisions have evolved between manufactoring industry, governments and network operators, each being responsible for distinct parts of R and D in the telecommunications field. This paper provides a comparison of R and D in Japan and West Germany to several western industrial countries and highlights their diverse structures. For this quantitative assessement various indicators for science and technology (S and T) have been compiled systematically. The new aspect of this paper is that indicators, only some of which are well established, can be interconnected provided that appropriate limitations are recognized. A comprehensive indicator system for research and development in telecommunications is currently not available as far as the author is aware. Consequently, subjective expert assessements are essential for the present indicator systems to overcome incomplete links between indicators, their poor adaptation to one another and data av ailability problems. The statistical sections here are therefore supplemented by a series of personal discussions in various countries