SECTION IV 

 LOCATION AND EXTENT OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ACTIVITY 



IN THE UNITED STATES 



By Franklin S. Cooper 

 Director of Research, Haslcins Laboratories, Inc., New York, N. Y. 



ABSTRACT 



An extensive questionnaire survey relative to indus- 

 trial research has been conducted by the National 

 Research Council. The results have been analysed 

 and various correlations found. A total of 2,350 

 companies reported 70,033 persons engaged in technical 

 research in American industry. Tliis is a 41 percent 

 increase over the personnel reported 2 years ago. 

 Slightly more than half of this increase represents real 

 growth. The remainder is due to the increased cover- 

 age of the present survey. The current data are 

 combined with earlier data to give an historical chart 

 of the growth of industrial research during the last 20 

 years. This is amplified by a grapliical representation 

 of the "birth rate" of industrial research since 1890, 

 showing the rapid establishment of research during the 

 twenties but a marked slump in recent years. 



The relative numbers of professionally trained, tech- 

 nical, and nontechnical personnel in industrial research 

 is found to be approximately as 2:1:1. Most of the 

 professionally trained workers are chemists or engineers. 



Charts showing the research personnel in the various 



iiidustrios serve to illustrate the very great disparity 

 between industries, and also the rate of growth of 

 research witliin a given industry. 



Correlations are established between the financial 

 size (tangible net worth) of corporations and the 

 number of research personnel employed. These illus- 

 trate clearly that although there are a substantial 

 number of small and medium-sized corporations 

 engaged in research, the total research efforts measured 

 by number of workers, is relatively small. The bulk 

 of the industrial research effort is supported by a com- 

 paratively small number of large corporations. 



Further correlations are estabhshed between the 

 number of research personnel and the sales or net 

 income of corporations. If one can assume an "aver- 

 age company," and that the total cost of research is 

 approximately $4,000 per man-year, the ratio of 

 research expenditures to sales is 0.6 percent and the 

 ratio to net income is 6 percent. 



The material is presented in graphical form witli a 

 brief summary at the end. 



Introduction 



In this section ' will be presented a factual descrip- 

 tion intended to answer questions as to the extent of 

 industrial research at the present time, and as to the 

 statistical record of its growth to present stature. 

 The information on which the several tables and charts 

 are based has been provided by industry itself. The 

 data have been collected by means of questionnaires 

 submitted by the National Research Council to all 

 companies known to maintain research laboratories, 

 and to a large number of other industrial orgamzations. 

 The survey was assisted by the splendid cooperation of 

 the National Association of Manufacturers, which also 



' Detailed procedures of handling the data for this section will be described in 

 footnotes, where this is considered essential to a proper interpretation of the material 

 presented; and further, where this treatment differs from that used in the prepara- 

 tion of Industrial Research and Changing Technology (Perazich, G., and Field. P. M. 

 Industrial research and changing technology. Philadelphia, Pa.. Work Projects 

 .Administration, National Research Project, Report No. M-4, 1940). Since the 

 report just cited contains thorough descriptions of the statistical procedures, these 

 will not be repeated here. 



submitted the questionnaire to its membership. The 

 individual returns reflect the diversity of research 

 activity tlirougliout the country, and illustrate, among 

 other things, the looseness of definition of the term 

 "research." ^ 



The data collected in this way are, of couree, not 

 complete. Many organizations doing research have 

 not been reached, nor are the returns received always 

 comparable. However, it is believed that the coverage 

 is quite adequate to yield a representative and qualita- 

 tively correct picture of present day industrial research. 



In one respect, the information available is not 

 precisely of the nature most desirable for the correla- 

 tions attempted. E.xpenditurcs for research are usually 

 expressed in terms of money, and it would be desirable 

 to present the survey data in the same terms; however, 



' The distinction between research and nonresearch personnel was left to the 

 individual company answering the (juestionnaire. In some cases this resulted In 

 the Inclusion of personnel engaged in control and te-ting; In other cases even develop- 

 ment engineers were excluded. 



173 



