Varying R&D budgets.
The United States is the world leader in research and development, spending $436 billion in 2012. A growing portion of U.S. R&D, however, goes to the development side, not research, raising concerns about whether the nation can maintain its lead in basic science.
Too many companies seem to be putting their money into copying competitors’ products with minor improvements. China, Israel, and Finland all are beginning to spend a larger percentage of their GDP on R&D than the United States