Spectrum R-D 100 [R&D spending]

All companies listed on the US stock markets may have to begin figuring stock outlays into their R&D expenses following the enactment of a new rule proposed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which establishes US accounting standards. The looming prospect of this new corporate accounting practice is already buffeting R&D in a way that few other developments have over the past half century. Disruptive as it is, the stock-accounting trend is just one of several poised to have long-term effects on R&D. Also seen to impact R&D are the increasing concentration of R&D resources on software development, systems engineering, and consulting, and the shift of basic research from private corporations to government-funded university projects as well as the globalization of the industrial research enterprise.