It is true that measurement of results from technology development programs is an important issue for many states and to the business and scientific communities they serve. The long-term objectives and benefits of these initiatives make it difficult to show immediate economic payoffs, which are needed to generate the continual financing that is crucial to their success.
Charles's article leads one to believe that Ohio's Thomas Edison Program assessed its research centers totally on the basis of job creation (or only short-term results), but then decided to "pull away" from such an assessment strategy once the numbers were in. This could not be further from the truth. Job creation was only one of nine criteria that Ohio used to judge the centers' performance.
The nine criteria—taken as a whole—portray the Ohio centers' overall health and performance. The decision to focus on nine performance measures was made specifically so that Ohio ...
