R&D and patenting activities of foreign firms in China: The case of Japan

This study investigates the research and development (R&D) and patenting activities of foreign firms in China. Utilizing a panel dataset of Japanese affiliates during the period 2001–2007, we first examine the determinants of R&D activity and find that local market-oriented firms place more emphasis on R&D, whereas process export-oriented firms are less likely to conduct R&D. Affiliates within a large business group that has more affiliates have a higher propensity to undertake R&D. Using only firms with positive R&D expenditures, we next estimate the patent production function. Results indicate that the patent elasticity of R&D for Japanese affiliates is high, suggesting that they are more productive on patent production than other firms. Moreover, local market-oriented firms do need more patents to protect their products, whereas scientific firms demonstrate a lower willingness to register patents in China.     

Relevance of Own R&D and Sources of Knowledge Transfer for Industrial Innovation in China

This study investigates industrial innovation and innovation patterns in China with a comparison to the Asian Newly Industrialized Economies (NIEs). It estimates knowledge production functions based on an original firm‐level dataset. Estimation results suggest that even though firms in China carry out various innovation activities at the same time, the innovation pattern found among their counterparts in the Asian NIEs is still relevant for contemporary China. In particular, sourcing knowledge and technologies from their OEM customers still plays a crucial role for Chinese firms' process innovation. In contrast, firms cannot rely on this knowledge source for realizing more sophisticated, knowledge‐intensive innovation outcomes, such as product innovation and patenting, for which their own R&D engagement is more significant.     

Knowledge spillovers from foreign direct investment in R&D: Evidence from Japanese firm-level data

This study uses firm-level panel data from the Japanese manufacturing industries and examines whether foreign direct investment generates intra-industry knowledge spillovers to domestic firms. The analysis found positive effects of R&D stocks of foreign firms on the productivity of domestic firms, while effects of capital stocks of foreign firms were absent, suggesting that knowledge of foreign firms spills over through their R&D activities, but not through their production activities. In addition, we found that the extent of spillovers from R&D stock of foreign firms is substantially larger than spillovers from R&D stock of domestic firms.     

R＆D Activities of Manufacturing Multinationals in China： Structure,Motivations and Regional Differences

This paper investigates the R＆D motivations of various multinationals operating in China, drawing on a large-scale, firm-level dataset of official Chinese statistics on science and technology activities. The present study shows that R＆D efforts in China have intensified for bothJbreign-owned and domestic firms, but less so for foreign-owned firms, perhaps because foreign-owned firms tend to operate on a foundation of technological capabilities developed within their home countries. Statistical analysis confirms that the major motivations for foreign R＆D in China are production-driven, not market-driven or technology-driven. Nevertheless, one sees significant variations in foreign R＆D strategies from region to region. Guangdong is characterized by production-driven R＆D. In Beijing, R＆D strategies tend to take a technology-driven approach, drawing on the clusters of scienl（fic institutions. In Shanghai, the R＆D efforts of multinationals tend to focus on support for market-driven R＆D,     

A Comparison of the Tax‐Motivated Income Shifting of Multinationals in Territorial and Worldwide Countries

This paper tests for differences in the tax‐motivated income‐shifting behaviors of multinationals subject to different systems of taxing foreign earnings. I find that, on average, multinationals subject to territorial tax regimes shift more income than those subject to worldwide tax regimes. The difference in shifting, however, is driven by a difference in the subset of shifting that involves the parent country; multinationals in the two groups appear to shift equally among their foreign affiliates. In additional tests, I find that the shifting of worldwide firms is sensitive to reinvestment in the recipient countries, while that of territorial firms is not.     

Process and product innovation: A differential game approach to product life cycle

We investigate the timing of adoption of product and process innovation using a differential game where firms may invest in both activities. We consider horizontal product innovation that reduces product substitutability, and process innovation that reduces marginal cost. First, we demonstrate that the incentive for cost‐reducing investment is relatively higher than the incentive to increase product differentiation. Second, depending on initial conditions: (i) firms activate both types of investment from the very outset to the steady state; (ii) firms initially invest in only one R&D activity and then reach the steady state either carrying out only this activity or carrying out both; or (iii) firms do not invest at all in either type of innovation. Comparing R&D investments under Cournot and Bertrand behavior shows that quantity competition entails lower R&D incentives than price competition in both directions.     

DEVELOPING EMPLOYMENT EFFECTS OF INNOVATIONS: MICROECONOMETRIC EVIDENCE FROM TAIWAN

This paper aims to identify the effects of innovation on employment and labor composition in Taiwan. Using a new and detailed firm‐level data set, the empirical results determine that innovations, measured by R&D investments or patent counts, have a positive impact on employment. Both of the estimated employment effects of product and process innovations are overall significantly positive. Although the effects of process innovations differ between high and low R&D‐intensive industries, the process innovation tends to expand the firms’ output and then increase employment for high R&D‐intensive industries. However, it frequently results in laborsavings in terms of production work and reduces jobs in low R&D‐intensive industries. Moreover, technological innovations are found to be non‐neutral, leading to a shift in labor composition in favor of skilled and more educated workers.     

Income Smoothing and Discretionary R&D Expenditures of Japanese Firms*

During the recent recession (1991 to present), Japanese firms decreased their spending on R&D for the first time since World War II. The decreases have raised concerns that Japanese managers may be making suboptimal allocations to R&D. We test whether Japanese managers adjust R&D based on short‐term performance. Our results show that Japanese firms in several industries adjust their R&D budgets to smooth profits. Interestingly, adjustments to R&D are larger in expansion years. These results, similar to those documented with U.S. managers, point to myopic decision making by Japanese managers.     

SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS AND NETWORKS IN THE CASE OF SEMICONDUCTOR LASER TECHNOLOGY IN THE US AND JAPAN, 1960s–2000s

United States organisations took a clear lead in semiconductor laser research until the mid‐1970s. After the 1980s, many important breakthroughs were developed by Japanese organisations. Exploring the journal Applied Physics Letters, this study examines how semiconductor laser technology developed in these two countries and how this change in the country‐level industrial leadership in the scientific research occurred. Examining the relationship among industrial organisations, research networks, and scientific breakthroughs, it discusses how these coevolved and how breakthroughs were channelled in different directions. R&D targets were channelled into small markets in the US, but were concentrated into the same markets in Japan.     

Impact of Outward Foreign Direct Investment on Domestic R&D Activity: Evidence from Taiwan's Multinational Enterprises in Low‐wage Countries

This paper theoretically and empirically investigates the home‐country effects of a firm's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) activity, specifically OFDI motivated by lower labor costs in the host country. A two‐country imperfect competition model is developed, and the interaction between a firm's R&D spending and its OFDI is examined. It is found that the relationship between a firm's OFDI and its domestic R&D is indeterminate because there is a complementary effect as well as a substitution effect induced by OFDI activity. Panel data on Taiwanese manufacturing firms from 1992–2005 are applied to test the validity of the theoretical results. The propensity score matching method is used to construct a comparison group without selection bias. Our empirical evidence reveals that a Taiwanese firm's OFDI is positively related to its domestic R&D spending, particularly in R&D‐intensive industries.     

Innovation,learning, and exporting in China: Does R&D or a technology index matter?

This paper undertakes econometric analysis of innovation, learning, and exporting in automobiles and electronics firms in China using a large-scale 2003 dataset to identify the most appropriate innovation proxy. Drawing on recent literature on innovation and learning in developing countries, it tests two alternative proxies: (i) a technology index (TI) to capture a variety of minor activities involved in using imported technologies efficiently; and (ii) the research and development (R&D)-to-sales ratio, which represents formal technological efforts to create new products and processes, often at world frontiers. A higher TI increases the probability of exporting in both industries, while the R&D-to-sales ratio was not significant. Foreign ownership, technical manpower, and the characteristics of the general manager/chief executive officer also matter. The findings suggest that China's remarkable success in the export of automobiles and electronics since initiating an open-door foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in 1978 is linked to technology transfer from multinationals; systematic investments in and upgrading of minor technological activities (like search, engineering, quality management and design); and human capital. As China's per capita income rises over time, however, formal R&D activities are likely to become more important to sustain competitiveness and technological upgrading in automobiles and electronics.     

Vertical Spillover Effects of Multinationals on Chinese Domestic Firms via Supplier-Customer Relationships

Foreign direct investment （FDI） can benefit domestic firms in the host country. Using firm- level data for China, we find statistically positive vertical spillover effects of multinational enterprises on the performance of domestic firms through backward and forward supplier- customer relationships. The spillover effects are mainly from large multinational enterprises and are greater for state-owned firms and in poor regions. Our results are robust for both parametric regression and nonparametric matching techniques. Our findings have strong policy implications： while regulations relating to building business relationships with domestic firms when seeking foreign direct investment should be established, such policies should be aimed at private firms, big multinationals and less developed regions.     

The Impact of R&D Cooperations and Mergers in Pharmaceuticals on Research Activities and Drugs Offered on the Market

In the last 10 years, the pharmaceutical industry has experienced steep, unprecedented price increases which are frequently attributed to increasing drug development costs. To cope with rocketing development costs, companies engage in Research and Development (R&D) cooperations. We study the impact of R&D cooperations on firms' research activities and drugs offered on the market. Using a comprehensive dataset, we find that R&D cooperations formed at the early stage of the drug development process increase the number of R&D projects and the number of drugs offered on the market. Late stage R&D cooperations, formed among larger firms in technology and product markets, increase firms' research activities, but reduce the number of drugs launched on the product market. Results suggest that large firms cooperating in the late research stage re‐optimize their R&D pipelines and eliminate similarly aligned research projects.     

Patents,R&D subsidies,and endogenous market structure in a schumpeterian economy

This study explores the different implications of patent breadth and R&D subsidies on economic growth and endogenous market structure in a Schumpeterian growth model. We find that when the number of firms is fixed in the short run, patent breadth and R&D subsidies serve to increase economic growth as in previous studies. However, when market structure adjusts endogenously in the long run, R&D subsidies increase economic growth but decrease the number of firms, whereas patent breadth expands the number of firms but reduces economic growth. Therefore, in accordance with empirical evidence, R&D subsidy is perhaps a more suitable policy instrument than patent breadth for the purpose of stimulating long‐run economic growth.     

Global knowledge flow and Japanese multinational firms’ offshore R&D allocation and innovation

This paper examines whether allocating more research and development (R&D) activities to a country-industry pair with a higher intensity of knowledge flows improves the innovation performance of multinational enterprises (MNEs). We use firm-patent-matched data for Japanese manufacturing MNEs, including data on MNEs’ offshore R&D expenditure and information on patents filed by both parent firms and overseas affiliates. Moreover, as a proxy for the intensity of knowledge flows, we use the eigenvector centrality of each country-industry pair in the global knowledge flow network, utilizing patent citation information.We find that the quality-adjusted number of patent applications tends to be higher for MNEs that allocate more R&D activities to country-industry pairs that are more central in the network of global knowledge flows. However, we did not find any significant relationship between the country and industry distribution of offshore R&D and the number of patent applications.     

竞争、生产率外溢与东道国的产业发展

跨国公司是如何影响东道国的产业发展的？产品市场和要素市场的竞争会挤出内资企业，然而对内资企业正的生产率外溢将提高生产率、降低生产成本，从而提高利润。本文构建了一个简单的理论模型考察跨国公司的竞争效应和生产率外溢对东道国产业发展的影响。模型推导及数值模拟的结果表明，跨国公司对内资企业正的生产率外溢使竞争效应减弱，负的生产率外溢则使竞争效应增强；跨国公司出口销售更加有利于东道国的产业发展。     

研发费用加计扣除政策对半导体企业技术创新的影响研究

为了推动科技高质量发展,中国采取了一系列的税收优惠措施来激发半导体企业创新活力。运用OLS回归分析法对中国70家半导体企业2016—2020年的数据进行实证检验。结果表明,中国研发费用加计扣除优惠政策对半导体企业技术创新具有正向影响。研究结论对政府在半导体企业中进行创新活动决策具有一定的借鉴意义。     

Technological Capability and FDI in Asia: Firm‐level Relationships among Japanese Manufacturers*

The present paper reexamines the relationship between technological capabilities and FDI decisions at the firm level. The data cover 118 300 Japanese firms in all manufacturing industries. The R&D of Japanese firms has a noticeably weaker relationship with FDI in Asia than with FDI in industrial countries. This finding is confirmed to be robust even when alternative estimation techniques are used and when R&D expenditure data are replaced by patent data. The estimation results also reveal non‐negligible fixed entry costs for FDI, a finding consistent with the observation that only approximately 2 percent of the firms invest abroad.     

Foreign Ownership and Productivity: New Evidence from the Service Sector and the R&D Lab

This paper examines the relationship between foreign ownershipand productivity, paying particular attention to two issuesneglected in the existing literature—the role of multinationalsin service sectors and the importance of R&D activity conductedby foreign multinationals. We review existing theoretical andempirical work, which largely focuses on manufacturing, beforepresenting new evidence using establishment-level data on production,service, and R&D activity for Great Britain. We find thatmultinationals play an important role in service sectors andthat entry of foreign multinationals by takeover is more prevalentthan greenfield investment. We find that British multinationalshave lower levels of labour productivity than foreign multinationals,but the difference is less stark in the service sector thanin the production sector, and that British multinationals havelower levels of investment and intermediate use per employee.We also find that foreign-owned multinationals conduct a substantialamount of British R&D. We discuss the implications of theseand other findings for the policy debate on incentives to influencemultinational firms' location choices.     

Multi‐Market Competition,R&D,and Welfare in Oligopoly

We investigate a multi‐market Cournot model with strategic process research and development (R&D) investments wherein a multi‐market firm meets new competitors that enter one of the markets. We show that entry can enhance the total R&D expenditures of the multi‐market firm. Moreover, the incumbent's profit nonmonotonically changes as the number of entrants increases. Depending on the fixed entry costs and R&D technologies, both insufficient and excess entry can appear. Our results imply that diversification of their products can be a useful strategy for firms.