The MBA
The MBA is about processes and the costs of these processes. As long as the Marginal costs is below the Average Revenue all is well. Research purchased can fit into this equation but the 9in-house research falls into where on the spread sheet. This was pointed out in the story about the peanuts and the saloon back last century. As noted here the this applies to share value which is the key metric used by my retirement fund in investing strategy. That the product has a flaw is not part of the equation and the liability suits that follow are not to be seen in this fiscal period. The flawed product may be improved at the expense of the MC vs AR ratio but the thought processes engendered by the MBA do not permit this to be easily entertained.
The process in ENGINEERING is that a partial failure is a failure. The product did not perform to all specification: Therefore the product is built with a safety factor (additional cost). This safety factor in theory protects all the foreseeable events but the MBA thought process asks do we need to guard against all events? Why not protect against the most likely and lower the Marginal Cost increasing revenue. A natural adversarial position.
One fly-in-the-ointment that prevents some sort of equilibrium - The Big Institutions. These institutions, mutual, retirement and insurance funds, are required to maximize their return on investment either by participants or government but none have devised a way other than quarterly statement. As a consequence the accounting in the short term beats out Good, New in-house research with its committed engineering.