How many different companies make snowboards?

How can you make companies share information and work together?

• Companies have a very clear motive for wanting to keep things secret from competing companies until they have a working model they can patent- being special, thus making more money. Or so I understand- I really don't know much about economics. The problem is when the thing the companies are working on is slightly more important than that, more meaningful than just a way to make money. Something like, lets say, algae biofuels. There are many things which we don't know and have to find out in order to have a marketable product, a profitable algal biofuel, and me guess would be that the reason there have been no significant results over the years and the so many companies working on the subject is that the research is going in circles- and in order to advance there will have to be some sort of cooperation, or at least information sharing. But if companies want to keep any advancement to themselves only, to get advantage over other companies- then how can they be convinced to work together?

• Answer:

  1. In a free society you don't want to make existing companies do anything. You want to make a new company to do what others are not doing. 2. Algae based biofuels are irrelevant if you don't have consumers with a need for fuel. You WANT that market and the attendant profits to motivate development of the new technology. Without profits you are left with the handful of people or organizations who can dedicate the necessary resources out of pure philanthropy. 3. The free market is already aligning the self interests of companies behind alternative fuels. This can be seen in the rising price of energy. As that price rises due to disequilibrium in supply and demand--more demand especially from the developing BRICs and fixed supply--the profitability and economic viability of alternatives drives their development. No coercion necessary. 4. Companies exist to provide value to shareholders. When they fail at this, they go away. Forcing them to pursue other goals, however noble, is a short-term proposition. Align the goals with free market principles and you get cooperation on a macro scale (and productive competition on a niche scale) without any coercion.