Note on R&D expenditures and fixed capital formation

In this paper we deal with the fixed capital nature of the means of production and labour employed in research and development which generate scientific and technological knowledge. We argue that these R&D current expenditures typically have the nature of fixed investments. We then present an empirical analysis which shows that expenditures on industrial R&D are more strongly linked to the formation of fixed capital than to the formation of capital in general. Applying this conclusion to the economics of research and innovation would make it possible to analyse investments in the production of scientific and technological knowledge with a higher degree of clarity and precision.     

Firm size and compositions of R&D expenditures: evidence from a panel of R&D performing manufacturing firms

The effect of firm size on diverse compositions of R&D expenditures is analysed in detail using firm-level data on the Korean manufacturing sector. On the grounds that each type of R&D activity differs in terms of salability in disembodied form and growth potential due to innovation, a distinction between product vs. process, and new vs. incremental R&D is made. Empirical tests show that the firm size is significantly associated with both the new and incremental R&D. Moreover, firm size is found to be significantly associated with other types of R&D compositions such as the share of R&D devoted to incremental innovation and multidimensional combinations of product, process, new and incremental R&D. These findings support the idea that large firms possess innovative advantages over smaller firms and firm size is an important determinant for firms’ heterogeneous R&D activities. We also discuss the limitations and the implications of the findings.     

Systemic aspects of R&D policy subsidies for R&D collaborations and their effects on private R&D

This paper analyses how context- and time-dependent factors determine the impact of R&D subsidies on firm behaviour with respect to private R&D expenditures. Based on German R&D survey data, we combine propensity score matching with a difference-in-difference estimator in order to measure the causal influence of public direct R&D project funding on firm behaviour. Our results indicate that (i) repeated participation in R&D projects on average leads to a higher increase in R&D expenditures than once-off funding; (ii) the aggregate effect of R&D funding on R&D expenditures of business firms is somewhat higher for business–business collaboration projects than for science–business collaboration projects; (iii) R&D expenditures of business firms that cooperate with science show a higher share of external R&D spending. Results of one particular cluster programme indicate that at least the short-term development of R&D does not so much depend on which programme direct R&D project funding is applied to.     

Determinants of biopharmaceutical R&D expenditures in China: the impact of spatiotemporal context

Scientometrics - The spatiotemporal context affects corporate behavior because any corporate activity is carried out in a specific time and space. Based on an examination on the research and...     

Business Group Affiliation and R&D

This paper analyzes whether belonging to a business group enhances firms' propensity for and intensity of R&D based on the greater opportunities to finance and co-ordinate R&D strategies and internalize knowledge spillovers. Compared with the existing literature, this paper has the following novelties: (a) it examines how the organization and diversification of business groups influence the R&D investment of affiliated firms; (b) it analyzes the role of R&D spillovers among affiliated firms; and (c) it distinguishes between propensity for and intensity of R&D. We find that less diversified groups are more likely to centralize R&D, while in more diversified groups firms are more likely to be autonomous. We find that controlled companies are more likely to benefit from knowledge spillovers than firms at the head of the group. Finally, we find that R&D autonomy is significantly associated with both a higher propensity for and intensity of R&D in controlled companies.     

The effects of R&D subsidies and network embeddedness on R&D output: evidence from the German biotech industry

Although policy makers subsidize firms’ R&D projects to increase innovational output in an industry, region, or country, it remains unclear whether such subsidization triggers additional R&D efforts or crowds out private investments. To address this question, we assess the effectiveness of subsidization for individual and collaborative research in the German biotech industry while also examining the relevance of network embeddedness for patent output. Our results indicate that subsidies do lead to increased patent output, with additional benefits from involvement in more than one project. However, the amount of money is only significant under certain circumstances. Also, it is higher degree centrality in the firm network that significantly increases R&D success.     

Do R&D Spinoffs have Higher R&D Productivity? Evidence from Taiwanese Electronics Firms

The startup mode of spinoffs founded by R&D employees (R&D spinoffs) within the same industry is widespread in high-tech industries. The founders usually own specific human capital and key technological capability, enabling them to take the operational risk and to appropriate rewards of innovations under the industrial environment of rapid technological change. Whether high-tech R&D spinoffs, compared to their other spinoff counterparts, have better R&D productivity remains less well explored. According to the conceptual discussion of the advantages of intangible innovation assets embodied in company founders, this study argues that the founders' innovation cognition, knowledge externalities, absorptive capability and routine experience can help R&D spinoffs to have higher R&D productivity. We thus propose three hypotheses that are then empirically tested. Based on a sample of Taiwanese electronics firms, the empirical findings show that R&D spinoffs invest with a higher R&D intensity and on average have more patents issued. More importantly, the microeconometric estimates show that the patent and output elasticities of the R&D of R&D spinoffs are significantly higher than those of other firms, indicating that they actually have higher R&D productivity.     

Hot-bed of fuel cell R&D

Late in 2001, the University of Connecticut unveiled a center of excellence devoted to fuel cell science and technology, the Connecticut Global Fuel Cell Center (CGFCC). The product of a unique collaboration between the State of Connecticut, local industry, and the University of Connecticut’s School of Engineering, the Center supports cutting-edge research, design and commercial development, education, and transfer of fuel cell technology. Though nestled near the University’s main campus in pastoral Storrs, the CGFCC is no rustic, sleepy laboratory. The Center is rapidly emerging as a recognized hub, gaining research momentum in the red-hot fuel cell arena. Analysts project the US fuel cell market will climb dramatically in coming years, $10-50 billion by 2010, with the greatest growth potential in the portable/mobile markets. The industry received a strong boost early in 2002 when President Bush voiced his budget support for integration of hydrogen fuel cells in the US auto industry.Anticipating the approaching trend, the University of Connecticut’s School of Engineering began negotiating in 2000 with Connecticut companies and government/private sector venture capitalists to establish a state-of-the-art center devoted to fuel cell science and technology. The Center was born in December 2001 as a partnership between the School of Engineering, the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (the state’s renewable energy investment fund), and local industry.     

Energy R&D: investment challenge

Despite dependence on foreign oil that keeps countries like the US embroiled in the Middle East, and amid fears of global warming, research and development (R&D) funding for energy technologies has declined significantly during the last two decades throughout the industrial world. Investments in energy technology R&D, and in associated human and institutional capacity, are fundamental to our ability to respond to changing economic, energy, and environmental needs.Although there has been a recent wave of interest in R&D policy in general, and energy R&D in particular, this has not been translated into the needed increases in funding. In most OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) member countries, government energy technology R&D budgets have been declining significantly in real terms since the early 1980s. The trends are particularly troubling given the pressing need to develop and utilize the clean energy and low carbon fossil-fuel energy technologies that will be critical in meeting our future energy needs, while addressing the local and global environmental problems we are facing.     

R&D and the overseas earnings of Indian firms

This article examines the impact of undertaking R&D, a measure of the enhancement of dynamic capabilities, on firms' overseas earnings patterns, for a panel of several thousand Indian firms, for the period from 1991–92 to 2005–06. The results show that undertaking R&D spending is associated with a significant rise in firms' average overseas earnings levels. These results point to the need for materially enhancing the very low levels of R&D undertaken by firms in India.