only 1.5 per- cent annually in 1985-90, compared with al- most seven percent in 1975-85.
Companies now confront a changed eco-nomic environment. "Tax policies, demands for quick financial returns and takeover threats have discouraged long-term strategies based on investing in research," Corcoran explains.
But if corporate R&D has fallen on hard times, it is partly because of its own past (eco- nomic) performance. Fewer than half the com- panies that gave birth to an important inven-...