The Architecture of Innovation

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Where R&D Came From

IN 1624, THE Latin edition of the British scientist, statesman, and philosopher Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis first appeared.¹ In it, he describes a visit to Bensalem, an imaginary advanced civilization somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, and articulates the rationale for corporate R&D. One of the key institutions of Bensalem is Salomon’s House, a research institution that may be government owned but is definitely independently run.

In Salomon’s House, a wide variety of specialized actors all contribute to the R&D enterprise. These include those who review research published elsewhere (whom he named “depredators”), those who undertake new experiments (“miners”), teams that seek to translate the experimental results into practical ...