In a June 2015 letter filed with the SEC prior to Google's annual shareholder meeting, Brin defended the ambitious, uncertain projects that his Google X division oversees.
R&D portfolio selection needs R&D project evaluation, and Real Options Analysis (ROA) is acknowledged as a powerful tool to evaluate uncertain projects that have an intrinsic flexibility.
In a similar vein, Yang et al. (2014), on the basis of findings of an empirical study, argue that trust and shared norms could be beneficial to exploration alliances because these collective assets are critical to uncertain projects involving intensive exchange of tacit knowledge and a higher level of collaboration as well as when rights and obligations are not well outlined.
The offer didn't seal a deal with Merrill Lynch, but it showed industry watchers how far governments and developers will go in an economic downturn to commit skittish tenants to big, sometimes uncertain projects.
The figure was described as shocking by critics of the scheme, who said it showed just how volatile and uncertain the project had become, given that the same energy department's estimate 12 months earlier had been £14bn.
Dr. McKay compared it to the early days of airplanes and airmail, "Just like we buy tickets on commercial airlines, why shouldn't we buy space on commercial flights?" Without this opportunity, it's uncertain this project would have ever gotten off the ground - and that would have meant a major missed opportunity not only for future astronauts, but also for people here on Earth as well.
"Even though the exact timing and magnitude of the 'tipping point' of each glacier is still uncertain, the projected long-term exhaustion of glacial water supply should have a considerable impact on the availability of water for both agricultural and human consumption," the scientists wrote.
One solution to this issue would be to use a stochastic sampling of streams of uncertain upcoming projects operating within alternative business environments and model the resultant impact on portfolio performance.
Nohria and Gulati (1996) and Chen and Miller (2007) also indicated that firms with abundant slack resources are more likely to foster uncertain R&D projects than firms with little accumulated slack resources.
