I don’t put the blame entirely on companies, because if they legitimately saw value in long term high R&D spending, their shareholders should be convinced to see that, and failing that, they could carry out said duty and stick to their guns.
If a company has a secret project which they believe will revoluationize everything in a few years, then it’s worthwhile for them to be not fully open about the fact. Given current regulations they are not allowed to secretly telling their biggest shareholders either because that unfairly gives them benefits that smaller investors don’t get.
An investor has no way to evaluate whether the money that goes into secret R&D is well-spent or isn’t while the CEO has a much better idea of the merits of the secret projects inside the company.
If a company has a secret project which they believe will revoluationize everything in a few years, then it’s worthwhile for them to be not fully open about the fact. Given current regulations they are not allowed to secretly telling their biggest shareholders either because that unfairly gives them benefits that smaller investors don’t get.
An investor has no way to evaluate whether the money that goes into secret R&D is well-spent or isn’t while the CEO has a much better idea of the merits of the secret projects inside the company.