Limited by Design

by Crow, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780231109826
• ISBN10: 0231109822
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-08-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Limited by Designis the first comprehensive study of the varying roles played by the more than 16,000 research and development laboratories in the U.S. national innovation system. Michael Crow and Barry Bozeman offer policy makers and scientists a blueprint for making more informed decisions about how to best utilize and develop the capabilities of these facilities. Some labs, such as Bell Labs, Westinghouse, and Eastman Kodak, have been global players since the turn of the century. Others, such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, have been mainstays of the military/energy industrial complex since they evolved in the 1940s. These and other institutions have come to serve as the infrastructure upon which a range of industries have relied and have had a tremendous impact on U.S. social and economic history.Michael Crow and Barry Bozeman illustrate the histories, missions, structure, and behavior of individual laboratories, and explore the policy contexts in which they are embedded. In studying this large and varied collection of labs, Crow, Bozeman, and their colleagues develop a new framework for understanding the structure and behavior of laboratories that also provides a basis for rationalizing federal science and technology policy to create more effective laboratories.The book draws upon interviews and surveys collected from thousands of scientists, administrators, and policy makers, and features boxed "lab windows" throughout that provide detailed information on the variety of laboratories active in the U.S. national innovation system.Limited by Designaddresses a range of questions in order to enable policy makers, university administrators, and scientists to plan effectively for the future of research and development.

Author Biography

Michael Crow is vice provost of Columbia University and professor of science and technology policy Barry Bozeman is director of the School of Public Policy and professor of public policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology

Table of Contents

List of Lab Windows	xi	(3)
List of Tables	xiv	(2)
List of Figures	xvi	(3)
Preface	xix
CHAPTER ONE The Sixteen Thousand Policy Analysis, R&D Laboratories, and the National Innovation System	1	(41)
Introductory Vignettes	1	(4)
The Mysterious 16,000	5	(8)
From Incomplete Policy Frameworks to Systemic Analysis	13	(13)
The National Comparative Research and Development Project: Constructing Empirically Based Policy Paradigms	26	(7)
An Alternative Science and Policy Paradigm: The Empirically Based Pragmatism of Institutional Design	33	(4)
Why Focus on Federal Laboratories? The Leverage Points for the NIS	37	(4)
CHAPTER TWO Laboratory-Based Innovation in the American National Innovation System	41	(32)
What Is a "National Innovation System"?	42	(1)
Varying Sources and Patterns of Innovation	43	(1)
Sources and Patterns in the American System of Manufactures	43	(9)
Grand Transformation	52	(5)
Continuing Expansion of R&D for Commercial Use	57	(1)
Sputnik as the Second Impetus	57	(5)
Energy Crisis and the Restructuring of Energy Research	62	(2)
Industries Spawned by Federal Funding of R&D	64	(1)
Expanding the Nuclear Threat and Commercializing Nondefense Technologies	64	(3)
Lab Science and Economic Competitiveness	67	(2)
National Lab Reevaluation	69	(1)
Laissez-Faire and Basic Science: Whither Applied?	70	(1)
The Collapse of Corporate Central Research	70	(3)
CHAPTER THREE A Snapshot of U.S. R&D Laboratories in the National Innovation System Structure, Output, and Design	73	(30)
U.S. R&D Laboratory System: Bringing the 16,000 Into the Light	73	(22)
Implications of Findings About the Structure of U.S. R&D Laboratories	95	(5)
What Is the Possible Effect of Reliance on the Sector Model for Policy Making?	100	(3)
CHAPTER FOUR The Environmental Context Taxonomy A New Approach to Systemic Thinking About the U.S. National Innovation System	103	(56)
In Search of New Models: Origins of the Environmental Context Taxonomy	108	(2)
The Threefold Lab Stereotype: Advantages and Disadvantages	110	(2)
Forces for Change in R&D Laboratory Environments	112	(5)
If Not the Threefold Stereotype, Then What?	117	(1)
The Environmental Context Taxonomy	117	(3)
The Environmental Context Taxonomy, Phase I: Mapping Energy Labs	120	(1)
The Environmental Context Taxonomy, Phase II: Mapping the U.S. R&D Laboratory Complex	121	(2)
Laboratory Characteristics	123	(27)
Implications of Classification Typology for R&D Laboratories and Public Policy	150	(3)
Recommended Use of the Environmental Context Taxonomy	153	(6)
CHAPTER FIVE Federal Laboratories and the National Innovation System Applying the Environmental Context Taxonomy	159	(22)
Viewing Federal Labs Through the New Typology	159	(14)
Viewing Policy Problems Through the New Typology	173	(8)
CHAPTER SIX Federal Laboratories and Their Performance in the National Innovation System	181	(34)
Technology Transfer Performance at Federal Laboratories	183	(8)
Technology Transfer Effectiveness: Laboratory Data	191	(4)
Industry Partners' Perspective on Federal Laboratories	195	(1)
Characteristics of Federal Lab-Industry Interactions	195	(4)
Benefits and Costs of Federal Lab-Industry Interaction: Various Approaches	199	(16)
CHAPTER SEVEN Redesigning Federal Laboratories Twenty Years of Study Panels and Their Recommendations	215	(12)
1993 Council on Competitiveness: "Industry as a Customer of the Federal Laboratories"	215	(4)
1978 The Multiprogram Laboratories (A Report of the DOE before the Current Laboratory Reevaluation): A National Resource for Nonnuclear Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration	219	(1)
1994 Changes and Challenges at the DOE Laboratories (The Galvin Commission)	220	(2)
1993 Defense Conversion: Redirecting R&D, Office of Technology Assessment	222	(2)
1983 Report of the White House Science Council: Federal Laboratory Review Panel	224	(3)
CHAPTER EIGHT Strategic Analysis and Design Recommendations of Federal Laboratories in the National Innovation System	227	(30)
Strategy-Relevant Information	227	(2)
Strategic Realignment of Laboratories' Technical Portfolios	229	(3)
Critical Factors Pertaining to the Redesign of Federal Labs	232	(4)
Industry's Perceptions of Federal Laboratories as Commercial Partners	236	(2)
Measuring Federal Laboratories' Commercial Performance	238	(4)
Federal Laboratories' Commercial Effectiveness: Results and Recommendations	242	(1)
What Federal Laboratory Technology Transfer Strategies Seem Effective?	243	(1)
How Should Federal Laboratories Contribute to Competitiveness and Other National R&D Needs?	244	(1)
Summing Up: Toward a Less Mysterious 16,000	245	(12)
Appendix I: The National Comparative Research and Development Project: Phases, Objectives, and Methods	257	(24)
Appendix II: Blue-Ribbon Panel Reports on the National Labs	281	(2)
References	283	(16)
Index	299