Amazon.com description: Product Description: This book is an attempt to combine theoretical and empirical analysis of co-operative industrial research and to treat this phenomenon as part of a more general process of industrial evolution. The theoretical and empirical findings can be linked together to provide testable hypotheses concerning the "best timeing" for successful pursuit of co-operative research. This task requires systematic identification of important technological capabilities and needs of firms involved in joint research at different stages of evolution aof their respective industries. matching these characteristics to the potential strengths and weaknesses of distinct modes of research co-operation generates predictions about the formation and timing of collective industrial research in different industries and the likely success and social desirability of such efforts. The present discussion represents a marshalling of the author's systematic thinking and research about the subject over a number of years.