Probing the database for more insights into the roles of the CTOs, we again find Japanese chief technology officers more involved in overall corporate strategy. This is not looking inward to technology but outward toward the corporation as a whole. As Figure 8 demonstrates, significant differences also are evident in the Insert Figure 8. extent to which the corporate CTO provides direction for technology development at the business-unit level. These influences include such elements as top-down perspectives about prioritization, standards, staffing considerations, quality control for technology, global competitive analysis on the technological dimensions of the firm. And again we find in ranking that in Japan more powerful CTOs are more prevalent than in Europe, and significantly moreso than in the United States. I believe that many firms are structured inappropriately at the top of their own technological endeavors to provide a centrality of focus, direction and leadership, particularly with respect to strategic linkage. I am not arguing here about questions of centralized or decentralized management of R&D, nor of how technology must be tied effectively into individual product lines. I am talking instead of how the firm creates a strategic vision of which technologies it needs, how the technology is to meet overall corporate objectives and corporate priorities, how the technology is to be developed and/or acquired, and how technology development across the firm can benefit from coordination and synergy. Those objectives are far more likely to be fulfilled if a senior (e.g., chief) technology officer who is capable of tying technology to overall corporate strategy is working at or near the board level of the firm. Budgeting for R&D One obviously cannot talk about management without talking about budgets. Budgets critically reflect strategy. Earlier I emphasized some differences between the corporate and the business-unit levels of the firm. Now, Figure 9 presents for the overall sample of companies the percentile breakdown of R&D spending at the corporate level, where an orientation toward research spending is evident, versus the business-unit level, where spending for development Insert Figure 9. dominates. Significant regional differences do exist, partly reflecting different industry compositions of these regions. Japanese companies overall allocate far more of corporate-level budgets to development (44 percent vs. U.S. 36 percent and Europe 33 percent) and far less to research (32 percent vs. U.S. 42 percent and Europe 49 percent) than other regions, but this is changing. Corporate-level support of current product and process technology does account for over 20 percent of its budget. Clearly, as we move from the corporate to the business-unit level, near-term support of both product and .