Heterogeneous Partners,R&D cooperation and corporate innovation capability: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms

In this paper, we examine the differential impact of cooperation with heterogeneous partners on firms' innovation capabilities. We use the number of joint patent applications of Chinese manufacturing firms from 2008 to 2018 to measure cooperation with different types of partners and the number of corporate patents to measure the innovation capability of firms. The results indicate that R&D cooperation with other enterprises, universities, and research institutions all have a significantly positive impact on the innovation capability of enterprises. However, R&D cooperation with universities or research institutions has a higher positive impact on innovation capability than that with other firms. Different internal and external factors moderate the relationship between heterogeneous partners and the innovation capability of firms. Specifically, firms with higher absorptive capacity will benefit more from R&D cooperation with corporate partners. In contrast, in industries with higher market concentration or where firms are at the technological frontier, cooperation with universities will positively impact their innovation capabilities. Further research demonstrates that absorptive capacity has a more positive moderating effect when the cooperation is between firms in the same industry, compared to R&D cooperation between firms in different industries.     

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.     

Technological trends in the area of fullerenes using bibliometric analysis of patents

Patents are a useful source of scientific and technological information. The bibliometrics analysis of patents has been made to identify technological trends in the area of fullerenes and study other parameters like growth of the patenting activity, active players in the field from industry, academia and government research institutions. It indicates that firms and R&D organisations in developing countries could undertake similar study on specific topics of their interests and obtain relevant insights.     

Sponsored R&D in India: The project sponsoring pattern and main outcome of projects sponsored by major central departments/agencies

This paper examines the project sponsoring pattern and the outcome of extramural R&D with respect to the projects sponsored by country's eleven central agencies during the Seventh Five-Year Plan period. The outcome considered are: contribution of R&D support to development of R&D facilities at the recipient institutions, creation of employment through project posts, development of new technologies, quantum and quality of research publications and generation of doctoral thesis. The paper concludes that sponsored R&D has largely remained one-way flow of funds to a preferred set of institutions (as perceived by each sponsoring agency) and the outcome of the R&D have also remained unexamined by the respective funding agencies. The paper advocates development of a monitoring system which would help in enhancing the utilisation of sponsored R&D and its overall impact on science, society and economy.     

How SMEs can benefit from supply chain partnerships

In recent literature on supply chain partnerships in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), there is controversy regarding the benefits of these partnerships. To resolve this controversy, specific information is needed on the implementation of these partnerships by SMEs; an area, that, thus far, has received little academic attention. In this paper, we examine different business functions (production, marketing and sales, purchasing and logistics, research and development (R&D) and finance) within a supply chain partnership. We collected data for each individual function from 279 high-tech SMEs and examined the relationship between the specific types of partnerships and the overall performance of the SMEs. The results indicate that it is only in the area of R&D that partnerships have a significant positive effect on overall firm performance. The results imply that SMEs primarily can benefit from particular types of supply chain partnerships, i.e. R&D partnerships. The results contribute to the debate in the literature by explaining why many SMEs were found not to benefit from these partnerships. We also provide implications for firms and how SMEs can better utilise supply chain management (SCM).     

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.     

What determines firms’ R&D intensity in business groups with cross-ownership structures?

This paper examines the impact of group-controlling shareholders’ interests on the R&D decision of group-affiliated firms in business groups with cross-ownership structures, especially with regard to the impact of control-ownership disparities or cash-flow rights. We show that R&D intensity across group-affiliated firms, in business groups with cross-ownership structures, is higher when control-ownership disparities are low or when group-controlling shareholders have higher cash-flow rights. Particularly in publicly listed firms, we find that the cash-flow rights of group-controlling shareholders are one of the most important determinants of the R&D intensity for group-affiliated firms.     

政府研发补贴与企业创新投入:数量激励抑或质量导向?

如何有效发挥政府“有形之手”对企业创新的激励作用,优化公共资源配置效率,是实施创新驱动战略和推动经济高质量发展的关键一环。基于2001-2017年中国非金融类A股上市公司面板数据,用研发投资衡量创新投入数量,用专利产出衡量创新投入转化质量,从理论上分析政府研发补贴对企业创新投入数量和投入转化质量的作用机制,并采用固定效应模型、联立方程模型等进行实证检验。结果发现:第一,政府研发补贴能够显著提高企业研发投资额,表明政府补贴对企业创新投入存在数量激励,同时,企业研发投资对专利产出具有显著正向影响,增加创新投入资金数量是确保投入转化质量的必要非充分条件;第二,在控制内生性后,政府研发补贴对企业专利产出具有不显著负向影响,表明政府研发补贴未能形成创新投入质量导向;第三,在政府干预程度较低、法治水平较好的情况下,政府研发补贴能够同时提升企业研发投资与专利产出,证实寻租行为、逆向选择行为和缺乏政府监管等是政府补贴无法有效发挥投入质量导向作用的潜在原因。     

Determinants of internal and external R&D offshoring: evidence from Spanish firms

This paper analyses the determinants of R&D offshoring of Spanish firms using information from the Panel of Technological Innovation. We find that being an exporter, international technological cooperation, continuous R&D engagement, applying for patents, being a foreign subsidiary, and firm size are factors that positively affect the decision to offshore R&D. In addition, we find that a lack of financing is an obstacle relatively more important for independent firms than for firms that belong to business groups. For these latter, we also obtain that the factors that influence the decision to offshore R&D differ depending on whether the firm purchases the R&D services within the group or through the market: a higher degree of importance assigned to internal sources of information for innovation as compared to market sources increases (decreases) the probability of R&D offshoring only through the group (market).     

How to interpret the position of private sector institutions in bibliometric rankings of research institutions

This paper analyzes the positions of institutions from the private domain in bibliometric rankings of as many as 27,000 research institutions and highlights factors that are crucial for a proper interpretation of such positions. It was found that among the institutions with the largest output in terms of published research articles, private firms are underrepresented, whereas in the top quartile of institutions with the largest citation impact firms are overrepresented. A firm’s publication output is not a good indicator of its R&D investment: big firms in Pharmaceutics are both heavy investors in R&D and frequent publishers of scientific articles, whereas in Automobiles firms tend to invest heavily in R&D but their publication output is low. This is ascribed to the fact that the former need a validation of their results by the scientific community, while the latter do less so. Private institutions generating the largest citation impact tend to collaborate with the best public research institutions. This reflects the crucial importance of publicly funded research for the private sector.     

Modes of inbound knowledge flows: are cooperation and outsourcing really complementary?

This study examines the relationship between breadths of two different modes of external knowledge: R&D outsourcing and cooperation. Building upon transaction costs literature and literature on research partner breadth and R&D outsourcing, we hypothesise an U-inverted relationship between outsourcing breadth and innovation performance and a complementary relationship between R&D outsourcing and R&D cooperation. The model is tested on a large sample based on CIS survey for Spain. The empirical analysis confirms the U-inverted relationship between outsourcing breadth and innovation and also reveals an interesting result: the complementary effect of R&D cooperation varies with the level of R&D outsourcing breadth and it is not confirmed for low and medium levels of R&D outsourcing breadth. The results have important implications for theory on the selection of different modes of inbound open innovation and for managers and their cooperation and outsourcing strategies.     

Business Cycles and Investment in Productivity-Enhancing Activities: Evidence from Spanish Firms

This paper tests the opportunity-cost theory on the long-run effects of business cycles using a panel of Spanish firms during the period 1991–2010. Under this theory, the share of productivity-enhancing activities (PEAs), such as R&D investment or on-the-job training, relative to production activities should increase during downturns because of the fall in their relative cost — in terms of forgone output. This would imply that business cycles may have a (positive) long-term impact on firms' productivity growth. In the spirit of Aghion et al. (2008), we allow the impact of the cycle on PEA to vary between firms with different access to external funding. We find that, in accordance with the opportunity-cost approach, the share of R&D investment and training expenditures on total investment outlays follow a countercyclical pattern, which in the case of R&D may be reversed by the presence of credit constraints. However, the share of investment in other non-R&D-related intangible investments is found to be acyclical, which could suggest some kind of substitution across different PEAs over the cycle.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Regional R&D activities and interactions in the Swedish Triple Helix

The Swedish innovation system is analysed in terms of the interaction between academia, government and the private sector. For each of 21 Swedish regions we analyse the distribution of research activities, doctoral employment, and publication output, as well as the flow of doctoral graduates and the distribution of co-authorship links across regions and sectors. The three main urban regions have about 75 percent of all R&D activities and outputs. They also have a more balanced supply of academic, governmental and private research activities than the smaller regions, and the interactions among sectors within these regions are more intense. The inter-regional flow of PhDs is also to the advantage of the big regions. So far, decentralization of the academic sector does not seem to have had as similar decentralizing effect on private R&D. Unless this imbalance changes, smaller regions will continue to be net exporters of skill and knowledge to the big regions.     

Sustainability performance analysis of environment innovation systems using a two-stage network DEA model with shared resources

The term environmental innovation system refers to an innovation network composed of enterprises, universities, and research institutions involved in the development and diffusion of environmental technology, with the participation of a government. An environmental innovation system not only exerts important impact on the achievement of carbon neutrality but also affects social and economic activities. Investigations on environmental innovation system performance constantly assume a single-stage independent system while ignoring its internal structure. However, such systems are composed of environmental innovation research and development (R&D) and environmental innovation conversion subsystems. A two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is developed in this study to analyze the efficiency of Chinese regional environmental innovation system by opening the “black box” and considering shared resources. Empirical results indicated that China presents high overall environmental innovation efficiency although some regions need to improve. Regions with low efficiencies in both environmental innovation R&D (EIR) and environmental innovation conversion (EIC) subsystems should expand their investment in and strengthen the management of environmental innovation resources. Regions with low EIR efficiency should improve the absorption and transformation of environmental innovation achievements. Regions with low EIC efficiency should increase investment in the commercialization of environmental innovation achievements and encourage green economy industries, such as new energy, art, tourism, and environmental protection.     

The gap analysis between Chinese pharmaceutical academia and industry from 2000 to 2018

The publication number in pharmaceutics from Chinese academia globally ranked second in 2014. However, the R&D capability of Chinese pharmaceutical industry significantly lags behind its globally 2nd market with 373 billion USD. The study aims to analyze the gaps between Chinese academia and industry in pharmaceutics. Publication, national funding programs and postgraduate training were analyzed to identify the academic output. R&D expenses input, research scientists and marketed products were investigated to evaluate the industrial demand. The Chinese publication number in pharmaceutics grows sharply, ranking first globally in 2017. The hot fields from Chinese scholars focused on nanomedicine and gene delivery, while the majority of products in Chinese pharmaceutical companies were still conventional dosage forms (e.g. tablet, capsule and injection). On the other hand, the number of Ph.D. graduates in pharmaceutics maintained a quite low-level output from 2000 to 2018, which seriously unmet the growing demand of high-level formulation scientists from Chinese pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, the development of Chinese drug administration system from 1978 to 2018 was detailed summarized, analyzed and discussed because the government policies strongly influence the academia and pharmaceutical industry. Two suggestions are provided to bridge the gaps between Chinese academia and pharmaceutical industry. On the one hand, Chinese universities should shift the academic evaluation system from publication-orientation to more diverse science and demand-driven researches. On the other hand, more industry-oriented Ph.D. graduates should be trained to meet the increasing demand from the pharmaceutical industry. As the second largest market in the world, Chinese pharmaceutical industry will face the enormous progress in next 5–10 years.