A Business Intelligence Approach to Monitoring and Trend Analysis of National R&D Indicators

The economic growth and competitiveness of countries is strongly influenced by their national research and development (R&D) systems. Hence, national R&D managers must make appropriate decisions to develop their R&D systems. For this purpose, an integrated view on the dimensions of national R&D systems is much needed. Due to the distribution of relevant data sources for national, R&D indicators and the complexity of national R&D systems, establishing an integrated view is challenging. In this article, we propose a business intelligence architecture to monitor, analyze, and forecast national, R&D indicators. Data for these indicators are integrated from heterogeneous data sources. In a case study focusing on Iranian R&D indicators, a prototype system is designed and implemented to evaluate its effectiveness in practice. After monitoring the indicators using online analytical processing, trends for the indicators across 11 years are forecasted using time series analysis models. The prototype system provides an integrated view of the Iranian R&D system, so that national R&D managers can use the developed system for monitoring and trend analysis of Iranian R&D indicators. As a result of the analysis of these trends, implications and recommendations for the future of the Iranian R&D system are presented.     

Major factors affecting cross-city R&D collaborations in China: evidence from cross-sectional co-patent data between 224 cities

Scientific research activities cluster in cities or towns. Modern cities can play a crucial role in the national or regional innovation system. Strengthening R&D collaboration between cities can contribute to perfectly integrating various regional innovation systems. Using the cross-sectional co-patent data of the Chinese Patent Database as a proxy for R&D collaboration, this paper investigates the spatial patterns of R&D collaborations between 224 Chinese cities and the major factors that affect cross-city R&D collaborations in China. A spatial interaction model was used to examine how spatial, economic, technological and political factors affect cross-city R&D collaborations. The degree of centrality shows that cross-city collaborative R&D activities mainly occur in favored regions, advanced municipalities and coastal regions. The mean collaboration intensity for intra-provincial cross-city collaborations is 4.74; however, for inter-provincial collaborations, it is 0.69. The econometric findings reveal that spatial, economic, technological and political bias factors do yield significant influences on the frequency of cross-city R&D collaboration. Specifically, as evidenced by the model coefficient, it is more likely that R&D collaborations occur among cities that are connected by high-speed railways.     

Research on the impact of global innovation network on 3D printing industry performance

In this study, we attempted to fill a gap that literature has yet to investigate: the impact of global innovation network on industry performance. Based on 3D printing patent data, this paper builds a cooperative innovation network of 34 economies for six years. It represents the network characteristics of each economy through 204 network attribute indicators. The panel data model is used to study the relationship between global innovation network characteristics and the R&D efficiency and the income of the main business of the 3D printing industry. The input and output data for the R&D efficiency of the 3D printing industry is derived from the Wohlers Report. R&D efficiency indicator values are measured by the Malmquist Productivity Index model based on DEA. The research results show that the global innovation network centrality indicators, structural hole indicators and clustering coefficient indicators have significant correlation with industrial performance. The research conclusions will provide theoretical support for various economies to formulate global innovation strategies and policies of 3D printing industry.

     

Science and technology policy in Turkey. National strategies for innovation and change during the 1983-2003 period and beyond

Summary An evaluation of Turkey's science and technology (S & T) policy in the last two decades has been made by using various indicators of S & T and technological innovation. National trends in inputs for research and development (R & D) activities, publication output and patent data have been studied for the implications of the S & T policy from 1983 to 2003. Some of the findings on the outcomes of policy measures in terms of inputs to R & D and publication output are as follows: (1) Total R & D expenditure, as percent of gross domestic product (GDP), increased from 0.32% in 1990 to 0.67% in 2002, (2) the fraction of R & D in the total expenditure for technological innovation increased from 6.6% in 1995-1997 to 29.2% in 1998-2000, and (3) the number of papers in the journals covered in the Science Citation Index (SCI) of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) increased from 464 in 1983 to 12160 in 2003 - a more than 26-fold increase in the last two decades.     

The role of firm R&D effort and collaboration as mediating drivers of innovation policy effectiveness

This paper investigates the impact of firm R&D policies supporting R&D investment and collaboration on company innovation performance. Individual and cooperative R&D investments are considered as intermediate outcomes (input and behavioural additionality, respectively) contributing to the final outcome (probability of product innovation). We use a treatment random coefficient model to estimate the policy additionality on a panel data-set merging the third and the fourth wave of the Italian Community Innovation Survey. Results show a significant and positive policy impact on company propensity to product innovation only for the input additionality and for the interaction between the input and the cooperative additionality. This occurs when company cooperation scores overcome a given threshold, in accordance with the assumption that cooperation entails benefits but also coordination costs.     

Induced technological change and the timing of public R&D investment in the Japanese electricity sector considering a two-factor learning curve

The UNFCCC has stated that energy policies and measures to address climate change should be cost-effective to ensure global benefits at the lowest possible cost. To mitigate the bulk of carbon emission from the electricity sector, a large market penetration of renewable energy technologies with as low cost as possible is a key research topic. The energy-related R&D policy in Japan aims to achieve a green economy. In our study, based on this context, we demonstrated how to optimize the timing of public R&D investment within the framework of a bottom-up partial equilibrium model. The developed optimization model represents the Japanese electricity sector and minimizes the total system cost subject to an accumulated carbon emission constraint. Our main research focus is the role of R&D activity, especially in the innovation stage of renewable technologies. We employ a two-factor learning curve and quantify the impact of the learning effect on the dynamic diffusion of major renewable technologies. The study shows a dynamic technology transition in the Japanese electricity sector and the optimized R&D investment schedule for each renewable technology. With the first-best energy policy, an R&D budget of more than 2000 million USD would be allocated to PV in 2050, which corresponds to 45% of the energy-related Japanese R&D budget in 2050. Because some have criticized the uncertainty problems with dynamic simulations and learning models, supplemental sensitivity analyses are included.     

What indicators do (or do not) tell us about Regional Innovation Systems

This paper analyses some of the methodologies and R&D and innovation indicators used to measure Regional Innovative Capacity in Spain for the period 1996–2000. The results suggest that the approaches examined are not sufficiently rigorous; they vary depending on the methodology and indicators employed. Therefore, we would suggest that the right balance between quantitative and qualitative approaches could produce a better evaluation of innovation system performance which would be more useful to policy makers and other stakeholders.     

Will China’s quest for indigenous innovation succeed? Some lessons from nanotechnology

Over the past decade, the Chinese state has made major efforts to transition China’s economy away from a focus on manufacturing, and towards a focus on generating indigenous innovation in R&D intensive fields such as nanotechnology. This goal has been pursued through a comprehensive industrial policy framework that aims to give preferential treatment to Chinese companies in domestic markets while also devoting significant resources towards basic and applied R&D, building science parks and research centers, funding focused venture capital funds, and recruiting prominent expatriate scientists and entrepreneurs from universities and businesses abroad. This paper, based on interviews with scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists in Shanghai, Suzhou, and Beijing, examines the strengths and weaknesses of China’s push for indigenous innovation. We use the case of nanotechnology to address the pressing question of why China continues to underperform with regards to generating innovative, high-tech companies and products, despite heavy public R&D investment and the presence of one of the world’s largest talent pools of potential scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs.     

Economic crisis and company R&D in Spain: do regional and policy factors matter?

The economic crisis which began in 2008 has had a far-reaching impact, including effects on the innovation behaviour of firms. Many companies have reduced their innovation-related activities, although some firms have been more resilient than others. Using a representative microdata panel of Spanish firms, we study the probability of companies abandoning in-house R&D during the crisis and its relationship to regional and policy factors. We find significant regional heterogeneity related to regional economic size and the type of the regional innovation system; regional government R&D support only reduces R&D abandonment rates in regions where a strong system of knowledge exploitation is in place.     

Trends in Russian research output in post-Soviet era

Recently, the Russian government has ordered evaluation and reform of the basic research system. As a consequence, the number of research staff at the Russian Academy of Sciences will be reduced by 20% by 2007. The basis for research evaluation and institute budgeting will be bibliometric indicators. In view of these changes we look at the Russian publication output and argue that

Principal parameters affecting R&D exploitation of nanotechnology research: a case for Korea

The purpose of this study is to determine principal parameters which affect the R&D exploitation and to explore R&D activities in closed science that positively affect those in open science. Based on 486 nanotechnology projects from five national R&D programs in South Korea, canonical correlation analysis is used to analyze the relationships among R&D parameters of inputs, outputs and outcomes and to determine principle parameters. As a result, this study concludes that the principal parameters are publications with high impact, patents, and academic degrees. This study also shows a positive correlation between activities in open science and closed science. The conclusions suggest that research results with high impact value should be endorsed by the Korean government and should try to keep a balance between R&D exploitation in open science and closed science. This study would be used for establishing South Korea’s R&D policy effective for faster commercialization of nanotechnology related research.     

Measuring S&T activities in the Former Socialist Economies of Central and Eastern Europe: Conceptual and methodological issues in linking past with present

The economic and social transformation of countries of central and eastern Europe has deeply affected their S&T systems. However, conceptual and methodological problems in monitoring transformation of their S&T systems are not trivial. In this paper we analyse conceptual and methodological issues involved in measuring S&T activities in the socialist and post-socialist period across the most important S&T indicators (R&D, US and national patents; innovation surveys; bibliometrics). Our conclusions are that: i) the process of methodological harmonisation of S&T indicators has progressed considerably and we have provided some evidence in that respect; ii) the use of similar or identical indicators (business R&D, innovation counts, patents, citations) when making inter-country or inter-temporal comparisons should be approached with caution because of the significant differences between the socialist and post-socialist periods as well as between post-socialist R&D systems and R&D in other market economies. This latter applies especially to the interpretation of business R&D data in the post-socialist period. A first version of this paper was presented at the Conference on the implementation of OECD methodologies for R&D/S&T statistics in central and eastern European countries' which was held in Budapest from 6.–8. November 1996. Research which formed the basis for this paper was funded in case of one of the authors by the EC TSER programme. Correspondence should be addressed to: SlavoRadosevic, SPRU, University of Sussex, BN1 9RF, Brighton. We are grateful to SylvanKatz for stimulative discussions and to two anonymous referees for comments in revisions of this paper. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the organisations for which they work.     

R&D policy instruments – a critical review of what we do and don’t know

In recent years, the term “policy instrument” has been used frequently with regard to R&D policy and innovation policy. This article examines the development of the term as part of a body of research known as “policy design”. Over the last 50 years, there has been substantial progress in setting policy design on a more systematic basis, with the development of established concepts and analytical frameworks, including various taxonomies of policy instruments. However, with just a few exceptions, this body of research seems to have had little impact in the world of R&D policy. The paper reviews the literature on R&D policy instruments, identifies a number of challenges for R&D policy instruments in the light of four transitions and sets out a research agenda for the study of R&D policy instruments, before ending with a number of conclusions.     

Multi-network embeddedness and innovation performance of R&D employees

Taking the perspective of multi-network embeddedness, this paper constructs the collaboration network of R&D organizations, the collaboration network and knowledge network of R&D employees based on the patent data of 879 R&D employees from 224 R&D organizations, and analyses factors that have significant impacts on R&D employees’ innovation performance. The results show that R&D employees’ knowledge combinatorial potential and knowledge diversity have significant positive impacts on their innovation performance. R&D employees’ degree centralities in the collaboration network mediate the impacts of their knowledge combinatorial potential and knowledge diversity on innovation performance. The degree centralities of R&D organizations moderate the impacts of R&D employees’ degree centralities on innovation performance.

     

Using patents and publications to assess R&D efficiency in the states of the USA

Even with the USA spending the largest amounts in R&D, its share in total patent grants worldwide has been declining. This decline is also evident in its share of world scientific publications. These developments have been termed by some as the “American Paradox”. Extant research on R&D efficiency and technological innovation capability has considered the USA as a homogeneous entity and has not focused at the sub-national level. This paper analyses the R&D efficiency of 50 US states and the District of Columbia. R&D efficiency is calculated as the ratio of patents granted and scientific publications to R&D expenditures. Only 14 states out of the 51 regions are found to exhibit positive changes in R&D efficiency between 2004 and 2008. Comparing this performance with that of the BRICS nations over the same period we find that Brazil, India, China and South Korea show significant improvements in R&D efficiency with India taking the lead. This research identifies the states in the US with the highest R&D efficiency and presents benchmarks which can be followed by policy interventions. The paper highlights the importance of conducting analyses of R&D efficiency using patents and publications at the sub-national level for informed policy making.     

On the supplementary functions of science and technology indicators

Starting from a simple phase model for scientific and technological progress the supplementary functions of various science and technology indicators are discussed. In particular, patent and literature indicators in the field of telecommunicationsR&D in West Germany are presented and compared. In addition, a few selected technometric,R&D expenditure, and trade data are included for the sake of completeness. This network of science and technology indicators is employed to analyse the institutional set up and the trends in telecommunicationsR&D on the macro-level (national level) as well as for singleR&D actors (institutional or micro-level). Further, the role of academic and other publicR&D in West Germany, including the regional distribution of activities and the specialization with respect to telecommunication subfields, are assessed. It is concluded that the various science and technology indicators — at least in the case of West German telecommunications —supplement each other. Synergisms between indicators do exist and should be explored better in future work. The case of telecommunications is ideal for such an exploratory assessment as it includes basic and applied research as well as strong industrial development activities.     

Is there a fallacy of composition of external R&D? An empirical assessment of the impact of quasi-internal,external and offshored R&D

Empirical studies at the individual firm level often find a positive impact of external R&D on innovation. However, external R&D sourcing might produce an impoverishment of the local knowledge base and thus damage innovation production at the regional level. To address this possible fallacy of composition, we first review the various forms of ‘external’ R&D. We then use the French R&D survey to assess the impact of four different ways of transacting or collaborating on R&D: onshore affiliate external R&D, offshore affiliate external R&D, onshore non-affiliate and offshore non-affiliate external R&D. We then estimate knowledge production functions on the 94 metropolitan French NUTS3 regions observed between 1997 and 2008, differentiating internal R&D and these categories of external R&D. We obtain that the impact of onshore non-affiliate external R&D is significantly negative. The other external R&D categories are non-significant and we do not detect any complementarity between internal and external R&D.     

Productivity of R&D institution: The case of Indonesia

This study analyzes the performance of Indonesian R&D institutions based on R&D productivity. By applying an institutional approach, the effects of collective determinants such as quality of researcher, R&D budgets, locations and ages of R&D institutions on productivity are considered. Our findings show that these performance variables had strong and significant effects on R&D productivity. A national innovation system should be developed in developing countries with different models from those used in developed countries. The non-economic dimension is essential in developing national innovation systems in developing countries such as Indonesia.     

Mapping the dynamics of knowledge base of innovations of R&;D in Bangladesh: triple helix perspective

Triple helix (TH) collaborations involving university, industry and government provide a networked infrastructure for shaping the dynamic fluxes of knowledge base of innovations locally and these fluxes remain emergent within the domains. This study maps these emergence dynamics of the knowledge base of innovations of Research & Development (R&D) by exploring the longitudinal trend of systemness within the networked research relations in Bangladesh on the TH model. The bibliometric data of publications collected from the Science Citation Index (SCI), the social sciences and the arts and humanities for analysis of science indicators and the patent data collected from the US Patent Office to analyze the patent success ratio as a measure of innovation within TH domains. The findings show that the network dynamics have varied considerably according to the R&D policies of the government. The collaboration patterns of co-authorship relations in the SCI publications prominently increased, with some variation, from 1996 to 2006. Nevertheless, inter-institutional collaboration negatively influenced by the national science and technology (S&T) research policies in the last 5 years due to their evaluation criteria. Finally, the findings reveal that the R&D system of Bangladesh is still undergoing a process of institutionalizing S&T and has failed to boost its research capacity for building the knowledge base of innovations by neglecting the network effects of TH dynamics.