The present paper reviews the evaluation of research and development (R&D) in enterprises, with particular emphasis on that in Japanese firms exposed to rapid changes in competitive environment. Existing studies on the evaluation of R&D are reviewed an classified into seven types. The author then discusses new postulations to the evaluation of R&D arising from changes in business environment, particularly in competitive situations. Five new criteria are proposed: 1) Does the R&D realize people's desire? 2) Are the business, products and technologies involved fascinating? 3) Does the R&D have impacts on global industrial trends? 4) Will the R&D produce global standards? 5) Will the R&D keep the edge in severe international competition? The conclusion proposes a concept of the overall evaluation capacity, defined as (organizational capacity concerning evaluation)×(evaluation criteria)×(corporate culture concerning evaluation), and makes five remarks on its improvement.