Strengthening intellectual property rights: Experience from the 1986 Taiwanese patent reforms

Do stronger intellectual property rights spur inventive activity and foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries? What are the characteristics of industries where strengthening patent rights has the most favorable impact? In an attempt to answer these questions, this paper uses the 1986 Taiwanese patent reforms to examine the effects of strengthening patent rights in a developing economy. I find that the reforms encouraged R&D effort across industries. In addition, industries that were highly R&D intensive witnessed a marked increase in their patenting in the United States. The reforms also induced additional FDI.     

International knowledge sourcing: evidence from U.S. firms expanding abroad

Recent research demonstrates that firms, motivated by national differences in technical activity, expand abroad to source unique knowledge. Extant research suggests that firms use a knowledge sourcing strategy to ‘catch up’ with competitors and to obtain ‘technical diversity.’ We widen the investigation by suggesting that firms also use knowledge sourcing as a springboard to reduce their next generation R&D costs–that firms would seek out similar R&D activity to combine with their own. Using unique data that encompasses the multitude of countries where U.S. firms invest, we test the importance of these explanations. Measuring knowledge via patent stocks, we find that country‐industries with larger stocks and greater technical similarity to the United States are more attractive. These findings suggest that an important explanation for firms investing abroad is not catching up or technologically diversifying, but is using similar R&D efforts of others to overcome fixed R&D cost hurdles. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

R&D Intensity and Acquisitions in High-Technology Industries: Evidence from the US Electronic and Electrical Equipment Industries

Theory suggests R&D intensity and acquisition activity may be either directly or inversely related. However, we know relatively little about which firms are responsible for acquisition activity in high-technology industries, which are not only R&D-intensive, but also have substantial acquisition activity in the United States. Using a panel of 217 US electronic and electrical equipment firms from 1985–93 and limited dependent variable estimation techniques, we find a substantial negative correlation between R&D-intensity and a firm's propensity to acquire. This result is surprisingly robust to numerous sensitivity tests and is significant in both the 'within' and 'between' dimensions of our data.     

Performance of Japanese firms in patented inventions; an analysis of patents granted in the U.S.

This paper addresses the relation between firm size and R&D activity for Japanese large manufacturing firms using patents granted in the U.S.. Japanese firms loom larger in world R&D agenda; therefore, the examination of the determinants of their R&D activity, in particular, the effects of firm size, may provide a suggestion of R&D activity. The firm size-patent count relationship varies across industry. In many industries, Japanese experience is not in favor of the assertion that there is a return to scale in R&D among large firms, indicating that Schumpeterian entrepreneurship is not likely to take place more than proportinately to firm size. This conclusion is not inconsistent with Schumpeter's theory.     

Measuring efficiency and ICT ecosystem impact: Hardware vs. software industry

The ICT industry is reshaping itself through convergence and coopetition across the ecosystem. In particular, many ICT companies have been trying to achieve both hardware and software capabilities to accelerate innovation. To understand the changes in the ICT industry, we empirically study the hardware and software industries using the ecosystem framework. We estimate the efficiency levels of the hardware and software industries in China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States (US) using stochastic frontier analysis and meta frontier analysis, and we examine the effects of the ICT ecosystem structure on efficiency levels using a Tobit regression. We find that the US, which is the global ICT leader, performs significantly better than other countries, with the biggest technology gap ratios in both hardware and software, and South Korea, which has the most hardware-centric industrial structure among the four countries, has the biggest efficiency gap between the hardware and software industries. Tobit results further reveal that a well-balanced ecosystem is important in achieving high efficiency in both hardware and software, and the effect is much higher in the software industry than in the hardware industry.     

Research on the interface factor in the development and utilization of new technology

AbstractThe interface factor in the development and utilization of new technology is analyzed with questionnaire surveys. The interface factor is found to determine R&D performance in a study of large manufacturing companies in the United States and in a study of computer utilization performance in commercial banks in the United States. A comparison of the interface factor in the functioning of R & D in the United States and Japan suggests that interface problems may be less serious in Japan. Company experience is reported which indicates that the interface function can be controlled by management policies, procedures and practices. The need for greater attention to the interface factor by executives and by researchers on R & D management is a conclusion which follows from the findings presented in this paper.     

Perceptions of products made in Japan versus those made in the United States among Japanese and American executives: A longitudinal perspective

This research reports on a longitudinal survey approach in which American and Japanese executives were queried regarding their perceptions of products made in the United States and Japan over a period of 15 years. Three surveys were conducted by mail in the United States using home country executives in 1977, 1991 and 1992. One survey was conducted in Japan in 1992 using Japanese executives and is compared to the findings of Nagashima (1977). Results show that over the past 15 years, the image of American goods has been declining both in the United States and Japan, whereas that of Japanese goods has been improving. These results offer an alternative product image/attribute-based perspective as an explanation of the United States trade deficit with Japan. Over the past year, survey results also reveal that the image of Japanese goods in the United States has suffered. This finding suggests that the image of a country's products is changeable, surprisingly even in a short period of time.     

基于DEA模型的高技术产业R&D效率评价

作为创新的"孵化器",高技术产业的RD效率问题至关重要。从区域与行业交叉的视角出发,选取RD活动人员折合全时当量和RD经费内部支出作为投入指标,有效发明专利数和新产品销售收入作为产出指标,运用DEA模型研究了中国高技术产业5个行业在17个省市的RD活动效率,运用层次聚类分析对17个省市加以聚类。研究结果表明:中国高技术产业RD效率普遍偏低,没有任何一个省市的5个高技术产业均处于较高的RD效率上;区域间发展很不平衡,高技术产业行业差异比较明显;个别省市的5个高技术产业的RD效率都很低;传统"创新"大省RD效率并不突出,存在严重的资源浪费。针对存在的问题,从追求效率、追求精益、协同发展和加强政策引导等方面提出了对策与建议。     

The impact of liberalization on the scope of efficiency improvement in electricity-generating portfolios for the United States and Switzerland

In this study, Markowitz mean-variance portfolio theory is applied to electricity-generating technologies of the United States and Switzerland. Both an investor (focused on changes in return) and a current user (focused on return in levels) view are adopted to determine efficient frontiers of electricity generation technologies in terms of expected return and risk as of 2003. Since shocks in generation costs per kWh (the inverse of returns) are correlated, Seemingly Unrelated Regression Estimation (SURE) is used to filter out the systematic components of the covariance matrix. Results suggest that risk-averse investors and risk-neutral current users in the United States are considerably closer to their efficiency frontier than their Swiss counterparts. This may be due to earlier and more thorough deregulation of electricity markets in the United States.     

Industry characteristics influencing the technical output: A case of small and medium size firms in the US

Using the small and medium size firms in the US as a sample, this paper reports on interrelationship among patents, publications and new products. Correlates of R&D expenditure, patents and papers and new products are presented. Relationships between firm size and R&D output and productivity are also investigated.
Since the study is based on correlational analysis, causal inferences are not drawn. The data indicates that the three indicators are related, but their strength of relationship varies with industries. Growth of sales is related with new products, but not with patents or papers.
Although the data point to the fact that small firms are more productive than their larger counterparts, there are many reasons to come to such a sweeping generalisation. Reporting of R&D data is not reliable for small firms as the very definition of R&D differs from firm to firm. Nature of R&D also changes as the firm grows in size; opportunities for patents or new products also change accordingly. These make it difficult to accurately measure and compare the R&D efficiency across firms of different sizes.     

中国高技术产业研发效率的实证研究

本文利用随机前沿生产函数测算了中国高技术产业的研发效率，并考察了企业规模、市场结构和所有权结构等因素对研发效率的影响。主要研究结论是：中国高技术产业的研发效率整体偏低，但呈现稳步上升状态，行业间效率差异有逐步缩小趋势。企业规模和市场竞争程度与研发效率之间存在着显著的正相关关系．外商投资企业和国有企业比重对研发效率也有正向影响，但外商投资企业对研发效率的贡献程度更高。     

Relating management practices to job characteristics of R&D: The case of Taiwan

Based on a study of researchers in three major R&D industries in Taiwan, this article found that while both supportive and directive styles of management are important in the supervision of R&D processes, the supportive behavior seems to be more effective than the directive strategy in motivating research professionals at work. Data also indicated that the job characteristics of R&D may be significantly influenced by industrial conditions. The management differences between industries are explained in the features peculiar to each particular industry. Implications of the findings for enhancing the management effect are also discussed.The author is an Associate Professor, Department of Business Administration, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, R.O.C. All correspondence should be sent to this address.     

Supplier relations and management: A survey of Japanese,Japanese-transplant,and U.S. auto plants

This article presents the results of a questionnaire survey sent to a sample of automobile manufacturers in the United States and Japan (including Japanese-managed plants in the United States) during the spring of 1990. The data support observations that Japanese and U.S. practices tend to differ in key areas and Japanese suppliers perform better in dimensions such as quality (defects) and prices (meeting targets, reducing prices over time); and that Japanese-managed auto plants established in the United States have, in general, adopted Japanese practices and receive extremely high levels of quality from Japanese as well as U.S. suppliers. These findings provide evidence that Japanese practices and performance levels are transferable outside Japan and suggest that considerable improvements are possible for U.S. suppliers supplying U.S. auto plants. In addition, the survey indicates that U.S. firms have adopted at least some practices traditionally associated with Japanese firms, apparently reflecting some convergence toward Japanese practices and higher performance levels in supplier management.     

Career paths, technological obsolescence and skill formation: R&D staff in Britain and Japan

This paper examines how scientists and engineers working in industrial R&D cope with the pressures of business and technological change and develop their careers. The data is drawn from a survey of nearly 1000 R&D staff working in large industrial corporations in Britain and Japan. Cross national comparisons are used to explore similarities and differences in coping strategies and in the human resource management challenges for companies. Particular attention is given to the problems of potential mismatch between RBD staff career orientations and available career opportunities.     

Passing the food and agricultural R&D buck? The United States and China

The global geographical balance of food and agricultural R&D spending is shifting, characterized by a declining U.S. share and a rising middle-income-country share, propelled heavily by the rapid rise of spending in China. Based on our newly compiled data, we estimate that China now outspends the United States on both public and private food and agricultural research on a purchasing power parity basis. The public-private orientation of the research has also changed markedly, with the private sector now accounting for around two-thirds of the food and agricultural R&D spending total in both China and the United States. Our estimates indicate that China’s private sector tilts heavily towards post-farm R&D activities, whereas the U.S. private sector is split more evenly between on-farm and post-farm spending. While the intensity of Chinese investment in food and agricultural R&D (relative to agricultural GDP) is beginning to grow, it still lags well behind the food and agricultural R&D investment intensities of the United States and other higher-income Asian countries (e.g., Japan and South Korea). The development regularities we reveal in the longer-run trends are indicative of future R&D investment patterns with potentially profound long-run implications for the size, shape and accessibility of the global stocks of scientific knowledge that underpin food and agricultural sectors worldwide.     

Competing capitalisms: capital investment in American,German, and Japanese firms

This study explains one way the home country institutional environment causes strategy differences across firms from different countries. It contrasts the investment conduct of American, German, and Japanese firms in the 10 largest manufacturing industries. We find profound national differences among these firms that are stable across industries. These differing conducts are tied to the institutional environments of the home market. The shareholder firms of the United States make investments primarily in response to expected investment returns, measured by Tobin’s Q ratio. The coalitional firms of Germany and Japan make investments primarily in response to the availability of internal finance, measured by operating cash flow. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

External Technology and In-House R&D's Facilitative Role

A number affirms use external sourcing of technology to create technological change in their organizations. In this article, Falguni Sen and Albert Rubenstein develop a rationale to support the concept of an integrative technology development strategy which emphasizes the role of in-house R&D during the planning and implementation process for externally sourced technology. They divide the external sourcing process into two major components: an acquisition phase and an implementation phase. Next, they define five distinct stages within both phases. Based on a review of the literature, the authors identify some common problems with external sourcing and discuss potential ways that in-house R&D can alleviate them by becoming involved in specific steps in each of the ten stages. The data in the article have been obtained from thirty-one cases of external sourcing of technology from a diverse group of industries in the United States and India. R&D's involvement in the external technology process varies among firms and is generally low in the acquisition phase. In the research, R&D managers describe barriers to their involvement, and the article develops measures of effectiveness of the activities in each stage of the external sourcing process. The authors recommend removing relevant barriers, especially in those stages where the involvement of in-house R&D groups could increase the effectiveness of the process.     

Assessing the R&D capability of the Japanese pharmaceutical industry

According to some observers, Japan's pharmaceutical industry 'emerged as a global competitor' in the 1980s. According to others, the same firms 'face severe obstacles' in the 1990s and may 'run out of time in their internationalization efforts.' To help clarify the competitive position of the Japanese industry, this article uses an original framework and set of estimates to codify the R&D capability of the nine major Japanese pharmaceutical companies ('the nine majors') and compare it with the R&D capability of their Western counterparts. On this basis the article concludes that the majors are not yet global competitors, although several could be by the end of the decade. The estimates help to quantify what has been described as a large gap between the R&D position of the Japanese companies and the position of the top Western pharmaceutical firms.     

The Unequal Effect of India's Industrial Liberalization on Firms’ Decision to Innovate: Do Business Conditions Matter?

Product‐market competition can boost industry growth if firms invest more in innovation. Using a natural policy experiment, the removal of India's License Raj, we show that firms in liberalized industries were 9% more likely to invest in R&D than firms in non‐liberalized industries. However, the impacts were not the same across firms of different size. After the reforms, firms in the top quartile were 23% more likely to invest in R&D than those in the lowest size quartile. Both productivity differences across firms and the heterogeneous impacts of business conditions on firms explain unequal effects of India's industrial liberalization reform.     

Open versus closed innovation: development of the wide strip mill for steel in the United States during the 1920s

A paired comparison is made between rival attempts to develop the first continuous rolling mill for wide strip in the United States during the 1920s. One firm was secretive, and the other relied on collaboration. Development of the wide strip mill is a natural experiment comparing closed and open innovation as two firms were competing for the same target using different institutional arrangements for their R&D. Wide strip‐rolling technology was developed by rival teams in the United States during the mid‐1920s. The less successful team at Armco, Ashland, Ky was closed to outside influences. Breakthroughs came from Columbia Steel at Butler, PA, which pursued an open pattern of cooperation with equipment suppliers. Columbia Steel's collaboration with machinery suppliers, use of independent advice on bearing technology and willingness to learn from precursors in copper rolling enabled them to build a successful wide strip mill complex, commissioned in 1926. Butler established the dominant design for the next 80 years. The leading equipment supplier at Butler, the United Engineering and Foundry Co., led global sales of the technology for four decades. It is not clear how far this example of successful open innovation in the US inter‐war economy is typical. Historical studies of the management of R&D focus on formal, science‐based research in large corporate labs rather than engineering development.