Welcome to this fifth module of Competitive Strategy. Thank you for staying with me throughout this course or jumping right in. So in this module we will be at the BMW World in Munich to talk about research, development and innovation. Research and development is often said to be one of the key functions within a firm. As you will see in a second, the BMW World is all about cars and you can somehow feel the spirit of innovation. They have a section about hybrid car engines. There's another one about intelligent driving. And there are electric cars on display, and so much more. It's also a busy place, so my apologies in advance for any side noise that you might hear. So, but even in industries other than car manufacturing, which are not traditionally thought of as high-tech industries, the development of new products takes center stage in the considerations of managers and of strategists. So in the context of research and development, a number of important strategic questions come up with a certain regularity. In particular, how do firms choose the intensity of their research activity? How do R&D activities depend on the nature of the innovation? And what role do technological races play in this context? What are sleeping patents? We're going to have a closer look at these aspects throughout the coming video lectures. Now of course, quite a number of innovations come about through a stroke of luck or serendipity. But it would seem sensible to assume that the majority of innovations come about because their inventors actively strove towards this particular innovation. Do you agree? Well, in that case, let's get started.