A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
In ME it is hard to distinguish between expenditure on research and development and the
costs incurred for the current output. The reason is that in a process with a high share of
made-to-measure products, some research and a lot of development may be undertaken in
connection with special orders. That is especially the case for small and medium-sized
firms. Thus it is true that the available figures for research and development in ME do not
reflect all the efforts taken by firms to find new technical solutions and to optimize
products as well as clients’ processes. However, all of...
