> What? Sure I can. It’s on the income statement.

It's on the income statement five years from now, not the one you have when you're making the decision today. The R&D paid for five years ago will commonly have been under different market conditions.

> Then I can show that some firms see more of a return on that R&D spending than others, and that impacts how valuable they are.

The question is, how do you cause your company to be the one getting more of a return?