ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an assessment of the interaction between the Research and development (R&D) management process and the context within which the R&D is conducted. The principal incentive motivating the private sector to innovate is profitability. On the other hand, the public sector has adopted a policy of supporting R&D efforts which are consistent with social and national interest. Technology transfer is accomplished through various forms of information dissemination, including demonstration projects. Program-planning activities of the federal R&D management process translate the organizational mandate into narrower, better-defined problem areas comprising a program agenda. While the agency’s staff plays the central planning and decision-making role, they are forced to accommodate demands from outside the agency. The project management stage involves the continuous process of generating, selecting, and executing the projects which comprise an R&D program. The major and most recent work in this area came from John G. Wirt’s R&D Management, a study of R&D in thirteen federal agencies.
