The crisis can, however, magnify the competitive advantage of research-intense firms who seize the opportunity to reinforce market leadership through increased spending on innovation and R&D. Many of today’s leading firms such as Microsoft or Nokia were born or transformed in the “creative destruction” of economic downturns. And several of today's leading technology firms such as Samsung Electronics, or Google strongly increased their R&D expenditures during and after the “new economy” bust of 2001. .
