ABSTRACT
A business is generally concerned with obtaining or creating only knowledge demonstrably useful in performing the work for which the particular business exists. In seeking such knowledge, a business is extremely pragmatic, just as ready to accept folk knowledge as scholarly knowledge. The acquisition and utilization of knowledge in such a business setting results from three broad streams of countervailing forces. First, there is the need to make efficient use of available resources in order to produce current earnings. Second, there is that resource, money, which has to be acquired and managed efficiently if the people, plant, and materials are to exist, adapt, and grow. The third force to be conjured with is the need for continuing growth, both in sales and in earnings. Business may very well pursue lines of inquiry in its research programs that are as basic to understanding and as innovative as those of any cloistered academic.
