Figure 4-15 



Major U.S. innovations per $10 billion in sales, by size of company, 1953-73 



(Number per $10 Billion) 

 3.5 — 



199 100-999 1000-4999 5000-9999 



Company size (number of employees) 



SOURCE Geltman Research Associates, Inc., and Department of Commerce 



10000 + 



Innovation and R&D intensity. The most 

 R&D-intensive industries (Group I industries) 

 produced the largest fraction of the major U.S. 

 innovations in the manufacturing sector — 182 

 of the 277 innovations included in this analysis — 

 during the 1953-73 period, followed by in- 

 novations from industries in Groups II and III 

 (figure 4-16). Innovations by Group I industries 

 comprised 66 percent of the total, compared with 

 24 percent in Group II and 10 percent in Group 

 III industries. 



Group I industries accounted for 80 percent of 

 the total industrial R&D expenditures over 

 roughly the same period (1956-73), compared to 

 16 percent from Group II, and 4 percent from 

 Group III. Over the 1953-73 period as a whole, 

 the number of innovations from the most R&D- 

 intensive industries increased to a greater extent 

 than those from the other two industrialgroups. 

 After the 1965-68 period, however, the number 

 of innovations in Group I industries declined in 

 relative terms. 



Within these industry groups, the largest 

 number of innovations — 171 — are in four of the 

 most R&D-intensive industries: electrical equip- 

 ment and communication; chemicals and allied 



products; machinery; and professional and 

 scientific instruments (figure 4-17).-'° It should 

 be noted that innovations in the defense and 

 space areas are not included unless they were 

 introduced into the commercial market; this may 

 account, at least in part, for the relatively small 

 number of innovations from the fifth Group I 

 industry — aircraft and missiles. 



Innovations in the manufacturing sector were 

 examined to identify the major areas of in- 

 novative activity and the shifts among these 

 areas during the 1953-73 period. For this 

 purpose, innovations were classified in terms of 

 their product fields through use of the Standard 

 Industrial Classification (SIC). The product 

 fields with the largest number of innovations are 

 listed below for each of three time periods. The 

 fields are described briefly in terms of their 

 corresponding three-digit SIC designations, and 

 ranked in approximate order of the number of 

 associated innovations. 



^'> See Appendix table 4-17 for the number of major 

 innovations in each of the 15 manufacturing industries. 



102 



