A managerial approach to research and development cost-effectiveness evaluation

An overall research and development (R&D) cost-effectiveness evaluation system that is currently in operation is described and discussed. Evaluation is done on several cross sections of R&D management. For use with several usage objectives of cost effectiveness, some variations of the figure of merit (FOM) are shown. The FOM indicates R&D danger symptoms, especially on promising future trunk-line products. The authors conclude that cost-effectiveness evaluation can be used strategically by taking into consideration the phase of research, the product's life cycle, and future growth factors. Some prospects and analysis for future R&D are reviewed and discussed.<
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