An assessment of innovation dynamics, competitiveness, and R and D policies in Japanese and West German telecommunications. The importance of new science and technology measures

Among the industrial countries, different working divisions have been evolved betweeen manufacturing industry, governments and carriers forming networks for R and D in the telecommunications field. This paper provides a comparison of R and D in Japan and West Germany to the most important western industrial countries and highlights their diverse structures. For this quantitative assessmant various indicators for science and technology (S and T), where available, have been compiled systematically. The new aspect of this paper is that indicators only some of which are well established can be interconnected provided that appropriate limitations are recognised. It became apparent from the survey that a larger information catchment is obtained for R and D management in the fields of telecommunications than if the available indicators are considered alone (and differently demarcated). One essential condition for success of the proposed concept was the need to examine the source and preparati on of data critically in order to supply the corresponding limitations. A comprehensive indicator system for research and development in telecommunications is currently not available in so far as the author is aware. Consequently, subjective expert assessments are essential for the present indicator systems to overcome incomplete links between indicators, their poor adaptation to one another and data availability problems. The statistical sections contained in this report therefore necessarily had to be supplemented by a series of personal discussions in various countries.