exception rather than the rule. The majority of as- 

 sociations lack the services and staff needed to per- 

 form these functions on any meaningful scale. NPOs 

 have other limitations as well that prevent them from 

 acting as significant forces for the mass introduc- 

 tion and diffusion of R&D results. The creation of 

 NPOs strengthens the production ties of only a few 

 research institutes. It does nothing for other branch 

 R&D units that do not belong to the NPOs. They remain 

 as isolated and insulated as before. Moreover, even 

 the most specialized enterprise cannot be satisfied 

 with the services of only one scientific organization 

 to solve all the problems of its technological devel- 

 opment. Since NPOs generally produce new items at 

 best in small batches of a 100 or so, their volume of 

 output is clearly insufficient for the needs of the 

 branch as a whole. In addition, the NPOs are obliged 

 to implement their own R&D. Their experimental pro- 

 duction capacity is usually too small to handle S&T 

 results produced by outside organizations. In short, 

 the NPOs are closed and relatively confined complexes, 

 walled off from many R&D organizations and production 

 establishments in their branches. What is needed are 

 organizations specializing exclusively in translating 

 R&D into practical use. They must be distinguished 

 by their universality and capability of introducing 

 ideas generated by many sources; they must be places 

 where any R&D unit or industrial plant can turn for 

 assistance. '2 



Actually, the idea of innovation firms is not new. 

 Taksir describes five kinds of organizations that 

 have evolved since the late 1960s and are oriented 

 specifically to the utilization of new technology .73 

 One type includes institutions like Energotekhprom 

 within the USSR Ministry of Power and Electrifica- 

 tion that are fully geared to develop and transfer 

 R&D results into application. Established in 1965, 

 this experimental production and engineering facility 

 provides a broad array of innovation services in the 

 amount of more than 14 million rubles a year. Besides 

 installing and debugging new products and processes, 

 Energotekhprom trains personnel at client enterprises 

 The firm also helps scientific institutes formulate 



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