Research in academia is mostly ones passion to denote their time in innovations and research for the unknown outcome. It might also be personal in addressing a problem to find a solution. Research in academia is not money oriented and it is based on individuals interest to carry out research on their own with no limited time frame.
Research in industry is basically to develop a product which can make money. A proper known goal is set on which people work to reach the goal in limited time. There is no personal connection for doing research in industry like in academia. At the end of the day, the research in industry should fetch money unlike academia research.
I feel more innovations and discoveries happen in academia research because of the freedom they have rather than in industrial research where in it is constrained to “making money” at the end of the research. To say which research is better, it depends on individuals perception on the purpose of research they want to do. I feel industry research is better because the innovations which result in the end product would impact on the society sooner which i can see and feel happy about that.