Research is always important no matter if it is in Industry or Academia. As Dr. Simon mentioned research in Industry is usually to create a solution to a problem while Academia researches tend to focus on understanding the problem, study various aspects of approaches to investigate the problems and perhaps solve the problem or at least provide prospective methods of solving it. Ultimately it depends on what is truly appealing to me. Although it would be appealing to witness a product mine of being commercialized, I actually preferred the groundbreaking research that Academia provides. I guess people in Academia research don’t value fast commercialization of their idea as much as they value the prosperity of the usefulness of the content of their results. This is plausibly one of the reasons why Academia research tend to attract financial driven people. Unless you make to the top and won the Nobel prize, your researches are more likely not be attract any substantial financial benefit. However, there is a sense of pride that comes with knowing that results of your researches might a serve a greater good.