Corporate Research Laboratories Research Articles

Industrial research booms in US, despite job cuts at large labs

philadelphia Industrial science in the United States is enjoying a resurgence despite the demise of the corporate research laboratory, say research managers.

Axial Fatigue Performance of Cold-Formed Steel Sections

During the expected service life of a transmission tower, the members are subjected to a large number of significant stress fluctuations resulting from alternating wind applications. Fatigue behavior due to repeated loading must therefore be considered in design. This study presents the fatigue-test results of 52 cold­ formed steel members. The experimental program involved the use of five cross-sectional shapes, two test temperatures (-50°C and 25°C), and two steel types, ASTM A715 grade 60 steel and CAN/CSA-G40.21-M 300W. A series of constant amplitude axial fatigue tests were conducted using a loading frequency that ranged from 1-2.5 Hz. All specimens were supported at the ends through bolted connections and were tested under load-controlled condition in a fUlly reversed load-cycle. Stress-strain response was monitored at different stages of the test until failure. A group of SoN and Load-N curves were developed for the purpose of determining the safe endurance limit. The results obtained could be used to establish guidelines for fatigue design of cold-formed steel sections. The experimental program was statistically designed, and was conducted under controlled conditions so that the analysis of the test data would reveal the parameters that were significant in describing the fatigue behavior of the test specimens. Three different types of steel were used to study the influence of yield stress on fatigue life. The types of steel used were ASTM A36, A441, and A514. This provided a range of nominal yield stress that ranged from 248-690 MPa. Nowhere in the available literature has there been an exten­ sive systematic investigation of the axial fatigue behavior of cold-formed steel members. An experimental program (Klipp­ stein 1981) conducted at the U.S. Steel Corporation Research Laboratory, Pittsburgh. Pa., involved 24 beam specimens fab­ ricated from sheet steel. This study indicated that the fatigue life of cold-formed sections was higher than that predicted by fatigue-design curves developed on the basis of tests on hot­ rolled sections. The study also showed that fatigue life is a function of the fabrication details and that it may be decreased substantially if holes or welds are present. Research carried out by Libertiny et al. (1977) has revealed that cold working of sheet-steel can improve the large cycle fatigue resistance, but may result in the degradation of small cycle fatigue resis­ tance.

Inside Microsoft Research

What are 250 top researchers from academia and industry working on at Microsoft Research (MSR)? What attracted them to Redmond, Washington, as well as two new facilities in San Francisco and Cambridge, UK? MSR's appeal to its researchers is that their research will likely be productized for the mass market. Each of three metagroups have long-term goals but look for ways to incorporate their research into products shipping now. Their research is already shipping in some form in nearly every Microsoft product. This article gives an overview of the organization and goals of MSR, established in 1991 to look three to five years out to ensure that Microsoft remains well ahead of the technology curve. As a corporate research lab, MSR is unapologetic about its intentions to identify and fund technologies and new applications that are relevant to Microsoft's corporate strategy. Research is tightly coupled to Microsoft's vision of next-generation systems and software development: PCs that are intuitive to even neophytes, programming paradigms and tools that improve programmer productivity and program maintainability, and next-generation systems for the enterprise. Three metagroups-Advanced Interactivity and Intelligent Systems; Programming Tools and Methodologies; and Systems and Architecture-undertake research in roughly 20 areas including speech technology, vision, natural language processing, user interface development and decision theory.

MULTI-CLIENT COLLABORATIVE R&D CONTRIBUTING TO NATIONAL PROSPERITY: A TALE OF TWO INDUSTRIES

The business landscape has undergone some significant changes over the last several years. Accompanying these changes has been an alignment of corporate R&D with business goals. This has resulted in significant downsizing of corporate research laboratories and the devolving responsibility for R&D matters to operating sites or business units. The downside of this is that the operations are now more than ever focussing on productivity, industrial relations and other essential short-term profitability-motivated issues. Consequently, the changing environment is creating cultures that value and reward short-term results. This short-termism has important implications to industry and the research community.One of the more successful and cost-effective mechanisms by which Australia can enhance its R&D base and consequent prosperity is through collaborative R&D. The Australian Minerals Industries Research Association (AMIRA), together with its oil and gas Division APIRA, has demonstrated over the years how effective this can be. AMIRA's raison d'etre is to assist the resource industries improve their technology position through collaborative R&D. It achieves this by working closely with researchers and industry to identify areas of common interest, develop research proposals, and seek financial support for these proposals from industry. Once a project commences, the Association administers the financial and reporting aspects, as well as monitoring progress, organising progress review meetings and assisting in technology transfer. AMIRA/APIRA has the track record, the systems and expertise to facilitate and manage collaborative R&D focussing on industry needs.The evolution of the Australian collaborative R&D environment in the oil and gas and minerals sectors has been significantly different. The oil and gas industry, particularly in exploration, does not have a history of strong collaborative R&D in Australia. The reasons for this are varied and can be found in the different corporate cultures between mineral and oil and gas companies.

Speech-based Multimodal Interaction in Virtual Environments: Research at the Thomson-CSF Corporate Research Laboratories

The Thomson-CSF Corporate Research Laboratories are investigating the issues of user-interface design, spoken and multimodal interaction design and realization in virtual environments. This paper describes our technical approach to speech-enabled multimodal virtual environments, based on our past achievements in the multimodal interaction domain, and presents our main supporting projects in this area. These projects involve augmented reality for maintenance, military situation building and assessment, and collaborative virtual environments.

Magnetic Properties of Sm-Fe and SmFeZr Compounds Prepared by Melt Spinning and Nitrogenation

physica status solidi (a)Volume 158, Issue 2 p. 559-566 Article Magnetic Properties of Sm-Fe and SmFeZr Compounds Prepared by Melt Spinning and Nitrogenation H. Sun, H. Sun [email protected] Fundamental Research Department, Corporate Research and Development Laboratories, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., Amagasaki Search for more papers by this authorT. Tomida, T. Tomida Fundamental Research Department, Corporate Research and Development Laboratories, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., Amagasaki Search for more papers by this authorK. Makita, K. Makita Sumitomo Special Metals Co., Ltd., Osaka Search for more papers by this authorS. Hirosawa, S. Hirosawa Sumitomo Special Metals Co., Ltd., Osaka Search for more papers by this authorY. Maehara, Y. Maehara New Materials Research Department, Advanced Technology Research Laboratories, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., Amagasaki Search for more papers by this author H. Sun, H. Sun [email protected] Fundamental Research Department, Corporate Research and Development Laboratories, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., Amagasaki Search for more papers by this authorT. Tomida, T. Tomida Fundamental Research Department, Corporate Research and Development Laboratories, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., Amagasaki Search for more papers by this authorK. Makita, K. Makita Sumitomo Special Metals Co., Ltd., Osaka Search for more papers by this authorS. Hirosawa, S. Hirosawa Sumitomo Special Metals Co., Ltd., Osaka Search for more papers by this authorY. Maehara, Y. Maehara New Materials Research Department, Advanced Technology Research Laboratories, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., Amagasaki Search for more papers by this author First published: 16 December 1996 https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.2211580224Citations: 4 1–8 Fusocho, Hyogo, 660 Amagasaki, Japan. Egawa, Osaka, Japan. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Citing Literature Volume158, Issue216 December 1996Pages 559-566 RelatedInformation

Formation and Structure of Self-Assembled Monolayers

The field of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) has witnessed tremendous growth in synthetic sophistication and depth of characterization over the past 15 years.1 However, it is interesting to comment on the modest beginning and on important milestones. The field really began much earlier than is now recognized. In 1946 Zisman published the preparation of a monomolecular layer by adsorption (self-assembly) of a surfactant onto a clean metal surface.2 At that time, the potential of self-assembly was not recognized, and this publication initiated only a limited level of interest. Early work initiated in Kuhn’s laboratory at Gottingen, applying many years of experience in using chlorosilane derivative to hydrophobize glass, was followed by the more recent discovery, when Nuzzo and Allara showed that SAMs of alkanethiolates on gold can be prepared by adsorption of di-n-alkyl disulfides from dilute solutions.3 Getting away from the moisture-sensitive alkyl trichlorosilanes, as well as working with crystalline gold surfaces, were two important reasons for the success of these SAMs. Many self-assembly systems have since been investigated, but monolayers of alkanethiolates on gold are probably the most studied SAMs to date. The formation of monolayers by self-assembly of surfactant molecules at surfaces is one example of the general phenomena of self-assembly. In nature, self-assembly results in supermolecular hierarchical organizations of interlocking components that provides very complex systems.4 SAMs offer unique opportunities to increase fundamental understanding of self-organization, structure-property relationships, and interfacial phenomena. The ability to tailor both head and tail groups of the constituent molecules makes SAMs excellent systems for a more fundamental understanding of phenomena affected by competing intermolecular, molecular-substrates and molecule-solvent interactions like ordering and growth, wetting, adhesion, lubrication, and corrosion. That SAMs are well-defined and accessible makes them good model systems for studies of physical chemistry and statistical physics in two dimensions, and the crossover to three dimensions. SAMs provide the needed design flexibility, both at the individual molecular and at the material levels, and offer a vehicle for investigation of specific interactions at interfaces, and of the effect of increasing molecular complexity on the structure and stability of two-dimensional assemblies. These studies may eventually produce the design capabilities needed for assemblies of three-dimensional structures.5 However, this will require studies of more complex systems and the combination of what has been learned from SAMs with macromolecular science. The exponential growth in SAM research is a demonstration of the changes chemistry as a disciAbraham Ulman was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1946. He studied chemistry in the Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel, and received his B.Sc. in 1969. He received his M.Sc. in phosphorus chemistry from Bar-Ilan University in 1971. After a brief period in industry, he moved to the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, and received his Ph.D. in 1978 for work on heterosubstituted porphyrins. He then spent two years at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, where his main interest was onedimensional organic conductors. In 1985 he joined the Corporate Research Laboratories of Eastman Kodak Company, in Rochester, NY, where his research interests were molecular design of materials for nonlinear optics and self-assembled monolayers. In 1994 he moved to Polytechnic University where he is the Alstadt-Lord-Mark Professor of Chemistry. His interests encompass self-assembled monolayers, surface engineering, polymers at interface, and surfaces phenomena. 1533 Chem. Rev. 1996, 96, 1533−1554

Special feature: Historical. Alfred O. C. Nier: An appreciation

Journal of Mass SpectrometryVolume 30, Issue 3 p. 401-402 Miscelleanous Special feature: Historical. Alfred O. C. Nier: An appreciation Steven J. Pachuta, Steven J. Pachuta 3M Corporate Research Laboratories, St. Paul, Minnesota 55144-1000, USASearch for more papers by this author Steven J. Pachuta, Steven J. Pachuta 3M Corporate Research Laboratories, St. Paul, Minnesota 55144-1000, USASearch for more papers by this author First published: March 1995 https://doi.org/10.1002/jms.1190300302Citations: 1AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume30, Issue3March 1995Pages 401-402 RelatedInformation

Why people do and don't wear active badges: A case study

This paper reports findings from an analysis of attitudes toward and use of active badges and associated applications in a large corporate research laboratory. The evidence will show that there were two distinct sets of views about active badges, leading one group within the institution to be strongly opposed to their introduction and use, and another very supportive. Analysis of these views will show that they were the manifestation of two different morally cohered communities. The demonstrable existence of these communities was in part achieved through and displayed by the avowal of these distinct sets of attitudes and views. Further, analysis of the particular communities will suggest that some of these views and attitudes had the character of being sacred or semi-sacred; in this sense they were beliefs. On the basis of these materials, the paper will conclude with discussion of how beliefs can form the bedrock of any and all communities, and how it is necessary to respect those beliefs if one wishes to introduce technologies to support group activities. Failure to do so can lead to the rejection of systems on grounds well removed from the purported purpose of those systems.

Cost Modeling as a Technical Management Tool

OVERVIEW:Universally, cost is a key factor in determining the commercial success of new technologies. Corporate research laboratories have developed countless technically exciting processes, only to see them put aside because they were too expensive for their targeted markets to bear. Technical cost modeling is a methodology for simulating the cost of developmental technologies. It is a useful tool for assisting R&D management, both for the selection of program alternatives and for the identification of “economic bottlenecks” within a given technology. Technical cost modeling takes a science-based, bottoms-up perspective on the cost of a technology. First-principle theories are coupled with established commercial practices to produce models that are robust, realistic and useful.

The Changing Role of U.S. Corporate Research Labs

OVERVIEW: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.

Evaluating Industrial R&D

The mission of a corporate research and development laboratory is to supply leadership technology that keeps the company's businesses winning in the global marketplace. Evaluation efforts must be simple and low in cost, must contribute directly to fulfilling that mission, must not distract researchers from their main tasks, and, most important, must help build credibility in the eyes of the lab's customers, the operating businesses of the company. These points are illustrated with special reference to General Electric's Research and Development Center.

Turning R&D Managers Into Technology Managers

The globalization of industry and the accompanying trend toward making technology a commodity rather than a corporate proprietary asset have many implications for technology management. It no longer suffices that the chief technical officers of a corporation be R&D Managers. They must now become Technology Managers. The difference is both subtle and far reaching. The role of the R&D Manager is to develop for his corporation the technologies it needs to achieve its corporate objectives. Internal resources will be used for the most part. The role of the Technology Manager is far broader: he or she must see to it that the corporation has available and uses the technologies it needs from whatever source they may be procured. The R&D Manager's role is, therefore, a subset of the Technology Manager's role. Converting from one to the other requires that a much more outward-looking attitude be implanted in the corporate culture, and this is not easy. This paper describes how it was done in Exxon Chemical Company in the 1970s, and hypothesizes a general prescription others may wish to follow. Sorting Out the HodgePodge Exxon Chemical Company was formed in the mid-1960s. It's purpose was to make profitable the hodge-podge of chemical activities initiated by the various Exxon petroleum affiliates around the world. These had grown up in the 1950s during Exxon's postwar period of intensive international expansion. They were usually undertaken because they were thought to offer a way of converting some of the refinery streams into higher-valued products than ordinary petroleum products. Some were indeed very profitable investments, but many were too small or in unprotected markets or were operated with so-so effectiveness by managers who did not truly understand that chemical markets were not the same as petroleum markets. Customer requirements and response speeds are much more demanding in the chemical business. Exxon Chemical's first few years were occupied with sorting all this out. Every operation was scrutinized in a triage exercise. Those deemed capable of continued profitable operation were encouraged to improve even more. Those viewed as salvageable were saved by an infusion of capital and, almost always, new management. Those judged incurable or unaligned with Exxon Chemical's interests were either shut down or sold. This was a very tough exercise, and it was concluded successfully around 1971. A key element in accomplishing this had been to group all the operations into ten product lines headed by world-wide executives with counterparts in the five geographic regions--Europe, the Ear East, Latin America, Canada, and the U.S. The triage exercise was carried out by these ten business groups. The product lines covered a broad sweep from commodity chemicals like olefins or aromatics to specialty elastomers, petroleum additives and other high performance products. Technology needs for these far-flung operations were either met by local technical service forces or by the infusion of technology from the chemical research and engineering arms of Exxon Research and Engineering Company (ERE). Good work was often done by ERE, though developments which never found commercial application within Exxon were often targeted. Examples are new technologies for making dimethylterephthalate and cyclohexanone, intermediates for the synthetic fibers industry. Others were organic pesticides and improved processes for making detergent alcohols. None of these was ever commercialized. Some of the earlier chemical technology had been purchased from outsiders because there was no source within Exxon. Ammonia, high pressure polyethylene, vinyl chloride, PVC and acrylonitrile processes are examples. ERE had little to do with the evaluation or assimilation of any of this technology. In 1968, ERE took the significant step of setting up a set of Corporate Research Laboratories (CRL). Their mission was to conduct pioneering research in fields of science of importance to all of Exxon's activities--catalysis, surface science, materials science, and so on. …

An accurate one‐dimensional model for nonadiabatic annular reactors

AIChE JournalVolume 37, Issue 8 p. 1265-1269 R & D Note An accurate one-dimensional model for nonadiabatic annular reactors J. Carl Pirkle Jr., J. Carl Pirkle Jr. Corporate Research Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, NJ 08801Search for more papers by this authorHaroon S. Kheshgi, Haroon S. Kheshgi Corporate Research Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, NJ 08801Search for more papers by this authorPatrick S. Hagan, Patrick S. Hagan Corporate Research Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, NJ 08801Search for more papers by this author J. Carl Pirkle Jr., J. Carl Pirkle Jr. Corporate Research Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, NJ 08801Search for more papers by this authorHaroon S. Kheshgi, Haroon S. Kheshgi Corporate Research Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, NJ 08801Search for more papers by this authorPatrick S. Hagan, Patrick S. Hagan Corporate Research Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, NJ 08801Search for more papers by this author First published: August 1991 https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.690370819Citations: 7AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Citing Literature Volume37, Issue8August 1991Pages 1265-1269 RelatedInformation

Obstacles To Basic Research in Japanese Firms

companies, which have been dependent on imported basic technology, have begun emphasizing the development of basic, generic technologies. They are doing this not only to avert friction in technology trade with the U.S., but because they need to develop technologically differentiated products in order to survive against competition from the newly industrialized economies. As a result, many companies have formulated a policy of strengthening basic research, and some companies have established laboratories specifically for basic research. (Basic research is defined here as research aimed at increasing the store of knowledge in a scientific or technological area.) However, few managers seem to take notice of the organizational obstacles to managing basic research projects or laboratories that are peculiar to companies. The problem is that as time goes by the research laboratories shift their effort irreversibly from basic research to applied RD in the case of the research centers at Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric this ratio reaches 60 percent (2). This practice had the advantage of shortening the lead time between research and commercialization when companies relied heavily on imported technology. There is also intensive peer pressure from employees in companies. It is hard to manage a corporate research laboratory when it is perceived as a paradise insulated from the operating divisions. Therefore, the system of contract research is required to promote the basic research laboratory's contribution to corporate profits. On the other hand, contract research is relatively short-term oriented. At those laboratories, Gresham's Law of Planning, as March and Simon describe the effect (3), takes hold and the priority tends to be set on contract rather than basic research. 3. Performance evaluation standards favor applied R&D. -- Because companies have traditionally attached greater importance to applied R&D, few managers today come from basic research. Moreover, for a long time the standards of performance have favored such factors as how quickly or how inexpensively the development was done. Therefore, the standard of evaluation suitable for a development environment has become established. As a result, those researchers who succeed in applied R&D have a greater chance of being promoted than do basic researchers. It is very difficult to change such a standard when the change requires a paradigm shift by top management. 4. R&D policy of top management. -- Several studies of Japanese have asserted that top management attaches more importance to the long-term growth of its company than to the short-term return to stockholders (4). But actually, companies struggle to keep from falling behind their rivals in the same industry. Furthermore, the comparison with rival companies is an important factor in determining the stock price. As a result, basic research policy set by top management tends to over-emphasize the activities of rival companies. For example, as soon as the news of success in the research on superconductivity at IBM's Zurich laboratory was announced, many top managements ordered the promotion of research on superconductivity. …

The New York Photonics Development Corporation: A showcase for innovation/commercialization

New models of innovation are emerging in the marketplace and these are rapidly replacing traditional corporate research labs as the sole source of new ideas, new technologies, and new practices. This trend is being fueled by the ready availability of venture capital, and more importantly, by the ubiquitous presence of information technologies (IT) that are enabling firms to identify and foster new ideas from a myriad of knowledge sources, which could be geographically dispersed. This de-centralized and un-directed form of innovation, referred to as “open innovation”, is gaining traction both in the private and public sectors. In this guest editorial for the Special Issue on Open Innovation in the Public Sector, we first explore the diverse issues that are engendered when implementing open innovation in the public sector, and the IT that can facilitate such initiatives. Next, we highlight the fundamental differences in terms of focus, aim, value, and external stakeholders of open innovation in the private vs. public sectors. Last, we describe an agenda for research on open innovation in the public sector based on trends and gaps in the literature as seen from papers that were submitted to this special issue. Specifically, we suggest several useful directions for future research including conducting domain-specific studies, examining the use of tools beyond social media, and expanding the existing set of research methods and theoretical foundations.

Alternative frameworks for technology strategy

If the progress in the field of technology strategy over the last decade is viewed from the industrial perspective, it is clear that three broad issues have formed part of the permanent agenda. These issues are: (1) The coupling between business and technical strategy. (2) The adverse impact of short-term financial perspectives on technical strategy. (3) Technology strategy for the service sector. In all three cases, where the debate has stalled, we have had to await the development of new conceptual frameworks before substantial progress has been accomplished in resolving the issues and implementing practical solutions. The paper outlines new conceptual approaches to these issues, and discusses their implementation in a major U.S. corporation, and its corporate research laboratories.

Content based text handling

Whereas up to now document analysis was mainly concerned with the handling of formal properties of documents (scanning, editing), AI (Artificial Intelligence) techniques in the field of Natural Language Processing have shown the possibility of “Content based text handling,” i.e., a content analysis for textual documents. Research and development in this field at the Siemens Corporate Research Laboratories are described in this article.

The Rise of the Corporate Commonwealth: U.S. Business and Public Policy in the Twentieth Century by Louis Galambos, Joseph Pratt

Book Reviews The Rise ofthe Corporate Commonwealth: U.S. Business and Public Policy in the Twentieth Century. By Louis Galambos and Joseph Pratt. New York: Basic Books, 1988. Pp. xiv + 286; figures, tables, bibliography, index. $19.95 (cloth); $9.95 (paper). Louis Galambos and Joseph Pratt provide an excellent survey of the development of the business firm and public policy toward business in 20th-century America. A synthesizing work based on the research of the authors and a wide range ofsecondary sources, this study aims both to explain the evolution of business and government in the United States and to use an understanding of that history to make sense of the current economic problems the nation faces. The avowed audience for this work comprises “those students who will in a few decades become leaders of our most important business and governmental organiza­ tions” (p. xii). Well written, logically organized, and illustrated with appropriate tables, charts, and graphs, The Rise of the Corporate Com­ monwealth will serve as a solid introduction to an important subject. An up-to-date list of suggested readings arranged by chapter will lead students to further work. Galambos and Pratt see the business firm as passing through several major stages in its development, with trade-offs between the ability of firms to innovate, achieve efficiency in their day-to-day operations, and control their external environments occurring at each stage. In the 19th century most companies were small, flexible entrepreneurial businesses that were very innovative but lacked stability in their operations. In the 20th century much larger businesses arose in key segments of the American economy. Run first by centralized and later by decentralized management systems, these companies gained inter­ nal efficiencies at the expense of flexibility and the capability for innovation. As the firm evolved, so did government-business relations. Galambos and Pratt examine changes in three types of government-business re­ lations in the United States: single-industry regulation (such as the In­ terstate Commerce Commission regulating railroads), cross-industry regulation (such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to improve the environment), and government-directed activities that shape the business environment (such as macroeconomic planning). Of special interest to readers of thisjournal is the capable discussion of al­ terations in business research and development—from the establish­ ment of the earliest corporate research laboratories to the post—World Permission to reprint a book review in this section may be obtained only from the reviewer. 132 TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 133 War II rise of a military-industrial complex—and their relation to changes taking place in the nature of the firm and public policy toward business. While largely succeeding in explaining the historical development of American business and government-business relations, this study is weaker in its attempts to unravel present-day trends and to prescribe solutions to the problems currently afflicting America’s business system. Throughout their work, Galambos and Pratt show that America has lacked a coherent set of policies designed to foster business development, and they strongly argue that this is proving especially harmful in today’s extremely competitive global economy. True enough. Just how this situation is to be changed is, however, unclear. Galambos and Pratt suggest “the creation of a narrowly focused independent agency ... to serve as a combined mediator and investment banker” (p. 255). Precisely how this agency would func­ tion, and especially how it would decide which industries and com­ panies to help, is not adequately explained. The implication made at several points that Americans might look at Japan’s MITI for inspiration is, I think, unwise. There were many reasons for Japan’s postwar economic “miracle,” and MITI’s actions were only part of the story, perhaps only a minor part at best. Americans would do better, as Galambos and Pratt themselves point out in the introduction, to examine the historical flexibility of America’s business system to find solutions to their nation’s current difficulties. Mansel G. Blackford Dr. Blackford is a professor of history at Ohio State University, where he teaches business history. He is the coauthor of Business Enterprise in American History (Houghton Mifflin, 1986) and the author of The Rise...

Polymer drying. I. Time‐studies of desorption from liquid saturated poly(styrene‐co‐divinylbenzene) microparticles

Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer ChemistryVolume 27, Issue 12 p. 4227-4227 ErrataFree Access Polymer drying. I. Time-studies of desorption from liquid saturated poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) microparticles L. A. Errede, L. A. Errede 3M Corporate Research Laboratories, 3M Center, Bldg. 201-2N-22, St. Paul, Minnesota 55144Search for more papers by this authorM. J. Kueker, M. J. Kueker 3M Corporate Research Laboratories, 3M Center, Bldg. 201-2N-22, St. Paul, Minnesota 55144Search for more papers by this authorG. V. D. Tiers, G. V. D. Tiers 3M Corporate Research Laboratories, 3M Center, Bldg. 201-2N-22, St. Paul, Minnesota 55144Search for more papers by this authorJ. W. C. Van Bogart, J. W. C. Van Bogart 3M Corporate Research Laboratories, 3M Center, Bldg. 201-2N-22, St. Paul, Minnesota 55144Search for more papers by this author L. A. Errede, L. A. Errede 3M Corporate Research Laboratories, 3M Center, Bldg. 201-2N-22, St. Paul, Minnesota 55144Search for more papers by this authorM. J. Kueker, M. J. Kueker 3M Corporate Research Laboratories, 3M Center, Bldg. 201-2N-22, St. Paul, Minnesota 55144Search for more papers by this authorG. V. D. Tiers, G. V. D. Tiers 3M Corporate Research Laboratories, 3M Center, Bldg. 201-2N-22, St. Paul, Minnesota 55144Search for more papers by this authorJ. W. C. Van Bogart, J. W. C. Van Bogart 3M Corporate Research Laboratories, 3M Center, Bldg. 201-2N-22, St. Paul, Minnesota 55144Search for more papers by this author First published: November 1989 https://doi.org/10.1002/pola.1989.080271227AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Volume27, Issue12November 1989Pages 4227-4227 RelatedInformation