When does the diverse partnership of R&D alliances promote new product development? The contingent effect of the knowledge base

Diverse R&D alliance partnerships not only provide access to broad external knowledge but also bring considerable expenses caused by transaction costs and absorption problems. The effective utilization of external knowledge in developing new products is closely related to the internal knowledge base. This study examines how firms' knowledge base properties influence the relationship between diverse R&D alliance partnerships and NPD performance. We empirically find that increases in firms' knowledge complementarity reinforce the positive impact of diverse alliance partners on NPD performance, but increases in firms’ knowledge substitutability attenuate. These findings offer valuable managerial implications that firms should commit more seriously to their internal knowledge base so that they can achieve higher NPD performance when establishing R&D alliances with external actors.     

Intangible investments and innovation propensity: Evidence from the Innobarometer 2013

This paper investigates the innovation impact of intangible investments. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, we argue that through intangible investments, companies acquire knowledge assets that increase their innovativeness. However, a greater innovation impact is expected from investing more in technological intangibles rather than in intangibles overall, and a greater one from using internal versus external resources. Through a new survey on a large sample of firms in 36 countries, accounting for different intangibles and addressing their endogeneity through proper instruments, these hypotheses are partially confirmed. Developing intangibles internally is actually the most innovation-impacting aspect, but not in manufacturing. Instead, by controlling for this choice and for that of investing in technological intangibles, the intensity of intangible resources is significant for innovation in manufacturing only. Policy/strategic implications about the need of readdressing the boost to intangible investments for the sake of innovation in Europe are drawn accordingly.     

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.     

网络分析法在军工研究所R&D人力资本投资风险评估中的应用

在对军工研究所RD人力资本投资风险因素进行识别的基础上,建立风险评价指标体系,发现指标之间存在相互影响与反馈的关系,提出基于网络分析法并同时考虑评估意见模糊性的军工研究所RD人力资本投资风险模糊评估模型,给出相关算法。最后,通过实例说明该方法的分析结果更合理、直观,而且还能为决策者提供更为详细的决策信息。     

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.     

Innovation Clusters in Technological Systems: A Network Analysis of 15 OECD Countries for the Mid‐1990s

The paper aims to investigate how innovations cluster in different technological systems (TSs) when their “techno‐economic”, rather than “territorial” space, is considered. Innovation clusters of economic sectors are identified by referring to the innovation “potential” represented by their R&D expenditure and by applying social network analysis to the intersectoral R&D flows matrices of 15 OECD countries in the mid‐1990s. Different clusterization models are first tested in order to detect the way sectors group on the basis of the embodied R&D flows they exchange. Actual clusters are then mapped in the different TSs by looking for intersectoral relationships which can be qualified to constitute “reduced TSs” (ReTSs). In all the 15 TSs investigated the techno‐economic space appears organized in hierarchies, along which its constitutive sectors grouped into clusters with different density and composition. Once ReTSs are looked for, the 15 TSs display highly heterogeneous structures, but with some interesting similarity on the basis of which different clusters of TSs can be identified in turn.     

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.     

Innovation in multinational firms: Does cultural fit enhance performance?

Abstract and Key Results

An empirical study of university–industry R&D collaboration in China: Implications for technology in society

This research investigates the growing phenomenon of university–industry (U–I) collaboration in high-tech strategic projects in China. After significant changes in the trading policies of 1978, China has gained heightened attention in technology and innovation. To achieve the stated strategic national goals, Research and Development (R&D) collaboration is essential. Organizations preferred to collaborate in order to share the burden of R&D costs and efforts. The academic outputs (research publications) of Chinese academic institutions and technology patenting ratio are increasing daily in China. These increasing numbers signal the importance of R&D. High-tech industries are inclined to share projects with universities. Foreign enterprises, state supported enterprises and local industry have played key roles to strengthening university–industry relationships.     

Sourcing Knowledge and Innovation in a Low-Technology Industry

This paper investigates the relationship between knowledge sourcing and innovation in a select low- to medium-technology industry, the forest sector. It is based on data from the Statistics Canada Survey of Innovation 2005. Econometric models are developed and tested, specifically logistic regression analyses, in order to probe the relationship between select forms of embodied and disembodied knowledge and levels of innovation intensity. Differences between single establishment Canadian firms, multi-establishment Canadian firms, Canada–USA multi-establishment firms and establishments belonging to multinational firms are studied in terms of the relationship between innovation and sources of knowledge. Findings indicate that establishment innovative performance is related to knowledge sourcing strategies and furthermore that organization ownership/structure impacts significantly upon this relationship.