The metrics of technology evaluation: where we stand and where we should go from here

The complexities of technology generation, transfer, and commercialisation processes have always gravely taxed the way we measure and assess them. This paper reviews the existing metrics for evaluation of science and technology, with emphasis on evaluation of industrial R&D and technology. Among the categories of metrics, this paper reviews econometric methods, patents, process methods, and bibliometric methods. The paper also reviews models of the innovation continuum, in an effort to link such models to the metrics categories. Based on the review of the state of the art, the paper proposes future directions for the development and the application of metrics of technology evaluation. A process-outcomes stage model is outlined and its advantages are listed. This stage-model is suggested as a more effective method to evaluate R&D and technology along the entire innovation continuum.