Driving forces for research and development strategies: an empirical analysis based on firm-level panel data

This paper investigates empirically different ways to organize research and development (R&D) within Swiss firms. Based on a longitudinal data set comprising three cross-sections (1999, 2002, and 2005) of the Swiss Innovation Survey, four different types of R&D strategies could have been separated; firms combine in-house R&D with R&D co-operations (coop) or in-house R&D with external R&D (buy), or they conduct in-house R&D, external R&D, and R&D co-operations (mixed), or they exclusively rely on in-house R&D (make). It is the aim of this paper to understand what drive firms to go for different strategies. Based on econometric estimations controlling for correlations between the dependent variables and endogeneity among the independent variables, it was found that concepts related to the absorptive capacity, incoming spillovers, and appropriability, the importance of different knowledge sources, the competitive environment, costs, and skill aspects as well as technological uncertainty are essential factors to determine a firm's decision to choose a specific way to organize R&D.     

The shift from theory to innovation: the evolution of Brazilian research frontiers 2005–2011

Proliferation of emerging economies as significant sources of competitive knowledge is a key feature of globalisation, often driven by government policies fostering domestic research-based innovation capabilities. To cast light on this common emerging economy effort to move from catch-up towards the global innovation frontier, we analyse the evolution of the focus of Brazilian research frontiers 2005–2011 with bibliometric methods. Our results demonstrate a gradual and moderate shift from theoretical scientific knowledge to more innovation-centred knowledge in the most influential Brazilian research, indicating the increased prominence and quality of innovation focused efforts in country's knowledge system. Thus, the recent expansion of Brazil's innovation system is accompanied by qualitative transformations of the research system, in part driven by nationally emerging research fields and technologies. Conceptually, we consider the overall importance of scientific research for developing and emerging economy innovation system build-up.     

R&D strategy and innovation performance: the role of standardization

Firms now increasingly recognise the important role of R&D strategy in building technological advantage. However, few attempts have linked standardisation with specific R&D strategies in explaining innovation performance. To bridge this gap, this study empirically examines the relationships between R&D strategies, standardisation, and firms’ innovation performance. Based on a sample of 371 firms in China, we use structural equation modelling (SEM) and find that novelty-oriented R&D strategy generates greater accumulation of standardisation knowledge and standards diversity, while R&D openness only positively relates to this standardisation knowledge accumulation. Moreover, standardisation knowledge accumulation is positively related to both administrative and technical innovation performance, while a greater variety of standards only leads to higher administrative innovativeness. More importantly, our results reveal that accumulation of standardisation knowledge mediates the relationships between R&D novelty and administrative and technical innovation performances. Both the theoretical and practical implications that arise from these findings are discussed.     

Information sharing and the stability of cooperation in research joint ventures*

The model studies information sharing and the stability of cooperation in cost reducing Research Joint Ventures (RJVs). In a three-stage game-theoretic framework, firms decide on participation in a RJV, information sharing along with R&D expenditures, and output. An important feature of the model is that voluntary information sharing between cooperating firms increases information leakage from the RJV to outsiders. It is found that RJVs representing a larger portion of firms in the industry are more likely to share information. It is also found that when sharing information is costless, firms generally don't choose intermediate levels of information sharing: they share all the information or none at all. The size of the RJV is found to depend on three effects: a coordination effect, an information sharing effect, and a competition effect. Depending on the relative magnitudes of these effects, the size of the RJV may increase or decrease with spillovers. In response to an increase in leakages, RJV members reduce their R&D spending. In addition, they either increase the RJV size while maintaining information sharing unchanged (when leakages are low), or they reduce both information sharing and RJV size (when leakages are high).     

Academic faculty as intellectual property in university-industry research alliances

In this article, we consider a particular type of strategic alliance that is perhaps most difficult to operate: those involving universities and industry that are based in a university setting. We consider this type of research alliance because while we know they face formidable challenges in terms of property rights – with the academic faculty participating in these alliances constituting the ‘property’ – there is very little study of how to address these challenges. Accordingly, we review a number of literatures focused on the shared use of human capital, from management science, organizational behavior, and science policy studies, among others, emphasizing the incenting of collaborative, boundary-spanning research. We discern lessons from these literatures for incenting industry-focused research in university settings and make some recommendations for future research on university-industry research alliances.     

Assessing the returns to collaborative research: Firm-level evidence from Italy

We use firm-level data from Italian manufacturing firms to assess the relationship between various types of R&D and total factor productivity growth, including collaborative research with other firms and universities. A novel twist to our empirical analysis is that we estimate a sample selection model, which allows us to treat the decision to conduct R&D as endogenous. We find strong evidence of positive returns to collaborative research with other companies, whereas collaborative research with universities does not appear to enhance productivity. This result implies that firms may conduct R&D with universities when appropriability conditions are weak and the outcomes of such research projects do not yield direct strategic benefits.     

Quick and dirty technology assessment: The case of an Italian Research Centre

Technology assessment has an increasingly critical role to play, in light of the fact that technology is the ultimate source of competitive advantage for companies, and of economic and social development for nations. In this paper, we present a methodology for a “quick and dirty” technology assessment, developed with reference to a real-word case study. The case in question is that of a large Italian Research Centre, whose top management required a rapid assessment of the technological competences, resources and results of the organisation. Because technology assessment is inherently highly complex, the problem consisted in reducing the complexity to obtain a simple methodology that could be rapidly deployed in practice.In summary, this paper: (i) describes a methodology for a “quick and dirty” technology assessment, effectively implemented in practice; (ii) points out the main problems/difficulties encountered and the possible solutions; (iii) discusses the results and the validity/applicability of the formulated methodology.     

The effect of deregulation on environmental research by electric utilities

This paper analyzes the impact of deregulation and restructuring on public-interest environmental research conducted by electric utilities in the US from 1990 to 2001. I find that deregulation has had a substantial negative impact on such expenditures, which have declined by 40%. However, restructuring has had no significant impact. In addition, the 1990 Clear Air Act Amendments have adversely affected such expenditures, contrary to the positive impact these regulations had on pollution abatement R&D as shown in the literature. Results also suggest that state and firm characteristics and regulator preferences play a strong role in the conduct of such research.      

Cooperation vs. competition in R&D: The role of stability of equilibrium

We consider a model in which firms first choose process R&D expenditures and then compete in an output market. We show the symmetric equilibrium under R&D competition is sometimes unstable, in which case two asymmetric equilibria must also exist. For the latter, we find, in contrast to the literature that total profits are sometimes higher with R&D competition than with research joint venture cartelization (due to the cost asymmetry of the resulting duopoly in the noncooperative case). Furthermore, these equilibria provide another instance of R&D-induced firm heterogeneity.     

The endogenous formation of scientific research coalitions

The paper develops a formal model of coalition-building ("network" formation) among research units that seek competitive funding from a supra-regional program, while also drawing support from their respective regional funding agencies. This analysis is motivated by the absence of frameworks of analysis applicable to problems of design of public R&D funding arrangements in the European Union, and in other regional systems were independent programs of "federal and state" support for research co-exists. The model assumes a fixed finite population of research units and an associated distribution of reputed quality, or scientific reputation, which may be modified as a consequence of research results. Non-cooperative games of coalition formation developed by Bloch (1995), and Ray and Vohra (1999), provides a useful single-period framework for this part of the analysis. Collaborations are formed in the expectation of attracting incremental research funding, given the selection criteria of the agency that offers funding for "networks". Invitations to join proposals for networks are initiated and acted upon following a specific ordering procedure. This gives rise to a repeated non-cooperative game of coalition (or collaboration) formation, in which the distribution of payoffs within the collaboration is governed by a fixed rule. Following Keely (2002), this type of game is applied to a multi-period setting in which a distribution of coalitions is tracked, along with the levels of funding received. The latter are determined according to a rule comparing the distribution of reputations within proposed collaborations, and the effects upon the distribution of reputations in the entire population are analysed. Alternative possible external funding rules are evaluated with the help of a numerical example, to determine how their impacts upon collaboration formation, and the resulting evolution of the reputation distribution (as that will be affected by the allocation of funding).     

Demand Shift Effect of R&;D and the R&;D Organization

We assume that R&D investment by a firm improves the quality of the product. This is reflected in an upward shift of the demand function. Firms can do R&D either independently or cooperatively. We show that cooperative research strictly dominates non-cooperative research, both in terms of profitability and welfare. Also, R&D investment by each firm under cooperative research is larger for a relatively high R&D output elasticity. The higher the degree of product differentiation and/or larger the R&D output elasticity is, the larger the increase in quality level under cooperative research, compared to non-cooperative research, will be.     

Assessment of India's research literature

The structure and infrastructure of the Indian research literature were determined. A representative database of technical articles was extracted from the Science Citation Index/Social Science Citation Index (SCI/SSCI) [SCI. Certain data included herein are derived from the Science Citation Index/Social Science Citation Index prepared by the THOMSON SCIENTIFIC®, Inc. (Thomson®), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA: ©Copyright THOMSON SCIENTIFIC® 2006. All rights reserved. [1]] for 2005, with each article containing at least one author with an India address. Document clustering was used to identify the main technical themes (core competencies) of Indian research. Aggregate India bibliometrics were also performed, emphasizing the value of collaborative research to India. A unique mapping approach was used to identify networks of organizations that published together, networks of organizations with common technical interests, and especially those organizations with common technical interests that did not co-publish extensively. Finally, trend analyses were performed using other year data from the SCI/SSCI to place the 2005 results in their proper historical context.     

The influences of different R&D types on productivity growth in OECD countries

Productivity has become an important concern for the sustainable development and growth of a country. Countries, such as those in the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD), that actively innovate and conduct Research and Development (R&D) activities always have high productivity growth, with research to date examining the positive influences of R&D on productivity. R&D activities are classified into three types: basic research, applied research and experimental development. To test the different influences of the different R&D types, panel data from 23 OECD countries for the period 1996–2010 have been constructed and the Data Envelopment Analysis method is used to measure and decompose productivity growth. Moreover, based on Mansfield's [“Basic Research and Productivity Increase in Manufacturing.” The American Economic Review 70: 863–873] model, the influences of each R&D type on productivity growth are tested. The empirical tests show that R&D investments in experimental development and applied research have a positive effect on productivity growth in the immediate period; basic research influences productivity growth with a lengthier lag, even up to three periods.     

Assessment of innovative software technology: developing an end-user-initiated interface design strategy

Knowledge intensive services and, in particular, R&D services contribute significantly to innovation in firms. The objective of this paper is to find out which characteristics of firms explain the acquisition of R&D services and to analyse whether there are differences depending on the typology of the supplier (universities, technology centres and consulting firms). Three main conclusions emerge from the econometric estimations carried out with information from a survey of innovative firms in the region of Valencia in Spain. First, the results show that firm size and age matter in the decision to buy R&D services. Second, our results are consistent with the relevance that the literature gives to human capital in absorbing external knowledge. Third, innovation policy has a significant influence on the decision to acquire R&D services, particularly from universities and technology centres.     

Public research intensity and the structure of German R&D networks: a comparison of 10 technologies

A rich literature has emerged that analyzes the emergence of inter-organizational networks. However, little is still known about how and why the (global) structures of such networks differ between technologies. Based on a rich database covering subsidized R&D cooperation in Germany, we compare cooperation networks of 10 distinct technologies. A particular focus is hereby on the existence of systematic differences between networks that are dominated by firms and those that primarily connect public research organizations. Among others, we find that the first tend to be larger and less dense with big firms being the most central organizations. In comparison, networks dominated by public actors are stronger centralized and involve more isolates.     

Mapping research on R&D,innovation and productivity: a study of an academic endeavour

ABSTRACT

This paper accounts for the development of the academic endeavour to determine the firm-level relationship between investments in R&D and productivity. The impact of 28 highly cited publications within this line of study is investigated using a combination of bibliometric techniques and citation function analysis. We show how the attention paid to this line of research broadens and deepens in parallel to the diffusion of innovation as a research theme during 2000s. Our findings also suggest that the attraction of scholarly attention is driven by combination of broadening interest in the central research question under study and boundary-pushing methodological contributions made in the key contributions.     

The role of spillovers in research and development expenditure in Australian industries

Using administrative data from firms in Australia that conduct research and development (R&;D), we examine how R&;D activity of other firms and public institutions affect a firm's own R&;D expenditure. We distinguish between the impact of peers, suppliers and clients. We examine whether geographical proximity and industrial clustering affect R&;D spillovers. Overall, we detect positive effects on R&;D expenditure from spillovers from peers and clients to firms that are nearby; within 25 or 50?km. R&;D expenditure by academia, unlike by government bodies, has a positive influence on a firm's own R&;D expenditure within state boundaries. We fail to find any significant role for industrial clusters in augmenting spillover effects.     

Banking consolidation and small firm financing for research and development

This article examines the effect of increased market concentration of the banking industry caused by the Riegle–Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act (IBBEA) on the availability of finance for small firms engaged in research and development (R&D). I measure the financing decisions of these small firms using a balanced panel of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) applications. Using difference-in-differences, I find IBBEA decreased the supply of finance for small R&D firms. This effect is larger for late adopters of IBBEA, which tended to be states with stronger small banking sectors pre-IBBEA.     

Research technology organisations as leaders of R&D collaboration with SMEs: role,barriers and facilitators

Research technology organisations or RTOs have attracted academic interest in the last decade due to their role as technology transfer agents and R&D collaborative leaders for firms and especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Although their role within the diversity of specialised structures in generating R&D for industry in National Innovation Systems is recognised, there are scarce publications in relation to their strategies, performance or characteristic, as leaders of R&D collaboration with SMEs. The aim of this work is to identify the role, barriers and facilitators for RTOs performance as well as to develop a contingency relationship between industry environment, strategy, organisational structure and other factors for successful technology transfer from technology organisations to SMEs. This research is based on a field study conducted on 14 technology organisations based in the Valencia region, working with various industry sectors.     

The determinants of pharmaceutical research and development expenditures

Since the late 1970s, pharmaceutical R&D has grown at a rapid rate relative to sales and other variables. In this paper, we examine the determinants of pharmaceutical R&D using a pooled data sample of 11 major drug firms over the period 1974 to 1994. We find that expected returns and cash flows are important explanatory variables of firm research intensities during this period. This is consistent with our results for an earlier sample period characterized by very different growth patterns on R&D.