NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project, Paper Nine: InformationIntermediaries and the Transfer of Aerospace Scientific and Technical Information (STI): A Report from the Field

摘要

In recent years there has been an increasing degree of attention given to issuesof the generation, management, and use of scientific and technical information. In part this attention can be attributed simply to the ever-increasing volume of data emerging from the nation's laboratories, libraries, and field sites, and to the amount of public and private resources going in to these facilities. In part, it results from a simultaneously growing uneasy feeling that we are failing to make the best use of this rapidly developing and changing resource. As we contemplate the increasing disadvantages experienced by American manufacturers in field after field of both low and high technology development, we are forced to ask ourselves why we seem to be unable to leverage our scientific expertise into equally significant economic payoffs. There is no shortage of explanations--or prescriptions--to be offered. Those of an economic bent tend to stress the role of tax incentives, of regulatory influence and uncertainty, and problems associated with capital formation and deployment. Those of a managerial turn of mind criticize the emphasis in American companies on short-term performance and limited financial planning criteria. Some look to political solutions, such as the creation of 'enterprise zones' or subsidies for small high-technology businesses.