The Relationship of R&D/Sales to Firm Performance: An Investigation of Marketing Contingencies*

The relationship between a firm's performance and R&D spending is often imperfectly understood, despite the fact that R&D is often a cornerstone of an effective innovation strategy. Susan Holak, Mark Parry, and Michael Song extend the classic innovation-adoption paradigm developed by Rogers and propose a series of hypotheses describing variations in the relationship between the R&D/sales ratio and a firm's performance. Using data from the PIMS database and contrasting growth-stage and mature-stage firms, the authors report that firm and industry characteristics have an important bearing on the R&D-performance relationship. In addition, managers can influence the incremental effects of added R&D spending on the firm's performance by manipulating certain firm-contingent variables. Increased R&D spending can have either a positive or negative influence on gross margin under various circumstances.     

产品兼容、网络效应与企业竞争力

在网络效应较强的产业中，技术设置的兼容性是左右企业成长的关键因素。随着技术进步、新兴产业的发展和市场竞争的加剧，产品兼容、网络效应对企业竞争力具有越来越重要的意义。在计算机、电信、银行、旅游、媒体、软件等产业中，用户在购买时十分注重产品或服务的兼容性和网络效应。本文以差异产品竞争模型为基础，考察了产品兼容、网络效应对企业竞争力的影响，就在位企业和新进入企业如何利用这两个产品差异变量增强其竞争力进行了分析。     

Small Firm Marketing: A Comparison of Eastern and Western Marketing Practices

This article reports on the analysis of 110 published, undisguised stories about Chinese owner-managers in Hong Kong and determines whether Chinese small firms exhibit the same marketing activities and behavior as their Western counterparts. Content analysis suggests that Chinese small firms are production oriented, whereas small American firms are customer oriented. Chinese small firms are also found to have limited marketing expenditure while their owner-managers have limited marketing expertise. The findings also suggest that Chinese small firms do little strategic marketing planning. One possible reason for this may be that Chinese owner-managers apply innovative tactics and change their marketing planning techniques to suit the characteristics of their firms and their particular circumstances. Thus, it is not unusual to find that Chinese small firm marketing can be described as entrepreneurial and their marketing planning activities as unstructured.     

资源型企业R&D投入与企业价值研究

在技术经济一体化的推动下,经济发展模式已从消耗自然资源的粗放式增长逐渐转变为依靠自主创新促进经济腾飞的模式。资源型企业应加大R&D投入,开展自主创新,试图增强持续发展的动力。如何检验资源型企业R&D投入的价值成为需要解决的问题,本文选取沪深两市资源型企业2007~2009年的R&D投入数据以及相关财务指标作为研究样本。基于R&D投入因素,通过对Fama-French三因子模型的改进,建立多元线性回归模型,检验企业R&D投入与公司价值的相关性。发现,资源型企业R&D投入会对资源型企业未来价值产生重大影响,对于上市公司,R&D投入可能带来公司价值的提升并反映到企业价值即股票市价当中。但是,R&D投入在带来公司价值提升的同时也能增加风险。从而提出进一步加大R&D投入,创新资源型企业已有的发展模式,坚持走创新研究,集约化发展道路;加快关于企业技术创新的财税政策体系改革,以优惠的税收政策带动企业持续R&D投入活动以及对R&D投入引入风险管理机制,完善信息披露制度等政策建议。     

整合营销中存在的问题及对策研究

IMC发源于80年代中期以来许多学者提出的具有战略意义的“传播合作效应”概念,90年代初风靡于西方营销界,其核心思想是企业如何通过传播的整合性、统一性、全员性、差异性来实现与顾客的有效沟通。整合营销传播缘于组织对适应已经变化了的和正在变化着的市场环境的需要。整合营销传播的成功执行涉及到方方面面,它需要促销活动中的每一环节的人员的积极配合。     

企业规模与研发投人强度的关系分析——以上海闵行区为例

企业规模与高新技术企业的研发投入强度的关系一直是学术界和实践部门关注的热点问题.本文通过对闵行区高新技术企业研发机构进行研究,发现闵行区高新技术企业研发投入具有集中在国有大型企业及其控股企业的特点,分析其原因以及中小企业研发投入强度不高的原因.最后提出了促进闵行区各类规模企业加强研发投入的对策措施.     

Doing R&D and/or Importing Technologies: The Critical Importance of Firm Size in Taiwan’s Manufacturing Industries

We analyze the relationship between firm size and innovation inputs in Taiwan. Two inputs are considered: R&D and technology imports. Building on an existing theoretical framework, we test this relationship by estimating bivariate Tobit models in twenty 2-digit industries, using a panel of 27,754 firms observed from 1992 to 1995. We find that, in all industries, R&D intensity and/or technology imports intensity depend strongly on firm size, following an “inverted-U” pattern. Moreover, we find that most industries are only “mildly Schumpeterian”. Finally, our results provide some empirical evidence for complementarity between R&D and technology imports in the innovation process.     

R&D,Firm Size and Innovation Outputs: Are Japanese Firms Efficient in Product Development?

Although Japanese firms in various industries enjoyed outstanding success during the 1980s, the recent economic news has been less favorable. Like their American counterparts, Japanese managers have faced difficult decisions regarding plant closures, layoffs, and moving production facilities overseas. Many Japanese business leaders attribute the innovation successes of the 1980s, at least in part, to economies of scale resulting from increases infirm size. If this assertion holds true, the current economic climate in Japan seems certain to result in diminished economies of scale for innovative activities. Ryuhei Wakasugi and Fumihiko Koyata test this assertion in a statistical study of the innovation efficiency of Japanese electrical machinery firms. In other words, their study explores whether the hypothesized economies of scale apply to the innovation inputs and outputs of these firms. They examine the manner in which R&D expenditures, patent applications, and product developments relate to the size of Japanese electrical machinery firms during the late 1980s and early 1990s—a period marked by high levels of innovative activity among these firms. For the Japanese electrical firms in this study, innovation inputs that is, R&D expenditures—increase in greater proportion than firm size. In other words, the larger firms in this study pursued their innovation efforts more aggressively than did the smaller firms in the study. In terms of R&D expenditures, however, the study does not reveal any resulting economies of scale for either patent applications or product developments. Similarly, analysis of the data in this study does not identify any economics of scale for product developments as a result of increases in firm size. In fact, the only economies of scale identified in the study involve firm size and the number of patent applications. In general terms, the statistical evidence in this study does not support the hypothesis that an increase in firm size improves the efficiency of innovation activity. To put this another way, the study does not provide evidence to support the hypothesis of economies of scale in product development.     

Marketing and Organisational Innovations in Entrepreneurial Innovation Processes and their Relation to Market Structure and Firm Characteristics

This paper analyses the influence of marketing and organisational changes on the innovation process. Using data from the German community innovation survey 2007, two topics are investigated: First, we analyse whether firm and market characteristics trigger certain innovation strategies. Second, this paper investigates whether marketing and organisational innovations (MO innovations) are complementary to product and process innovations (PP innovations) or whether they are substitutes. Our results suggest that firms choose broad innovation strategies, which combine MO and PP innovations, if they have large internal resources and intermediate market power. We also find that marketing innovations make product and process innovations more successful.     

A Longitudinal Study of the Impact of R&D,Patents, and Product Innovation on Firm Performance

Because of increasing levels of competition and decreasing product life cycles, a firm's ability to generate a continuous stream of innovations may be more important than ever in allowing a firm to improve profitability and maintain competitive advantage This paper investigates several issues that are central to an examination of the innovation productivity in a firm. First, the relationship between a firm's commitment to research and development and its innovative outcomes is examined. Two innovative outcomes are analyzed: (1) invention, which focuses on the development of new ideas; and (2) innovation, the development of commercially viable products or services from creative ideas. Invention is measured by the number of patents granted, and innovation is assessed by the number of new product announcements. Second, because many inventions ultimately result in marketable innovations and because patents may provide protection for new products, the relationship between patents and product announcements is also investigated. Finally, the ability of a firm to benefit from its inventions and innovations is studied by examining their separate effects on firm performance, measured as return on assets (ROA) and sales growth. Drawing from a sample of 272 firms in 35 industries over 19 years, the results from a model of simultaneous equations provided support for some of the hypotheses, but several other surprising findings were found. As expected, R&D spending was positively related to patents. This finding is consistent with others who argue that internal research capabilities, particularly those with a strong basic research component, is key to enabling a firm to generate creative outputs. More surprising was the finding of increasing returns to scale to R&D spending. While this contradicts much of the existing research, it is consistent with economic arguments for the advantages of scale in innovation. Also interesting is the finding that, while a significant curvilinear relationship exists between R&D spending and product announcements, it is not the predicted inverse‐U but instead a U‐shaped relationship. Consistent with previous work, product announcements were found to be positively related to both performance measures. A negative relationship was found between patents and both ROA and sales growth. While these findings were unexpected, they are intriguing and call into question the value of patents as protection mechanisms. In addition, these results may be resulting from the rise of strategic patenting, where an increasing number of firms are using patents as strategic weapons. As expected, a positive relationship was found between patents and new product announcements.     

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.     

有限外部化:技术进步对企业边界的影响

本文从技术进步的角度动态地研究企业组织边界的变动。通过理论上论证快速的技术进步对内部组织治理与外部交易活动的影响，我们认为快速的技术进步既增大了企业内部化的不确定性，也导致了市场交易费用的降低。但是，由于技术进步并不能完全消除市场交易活动中的不确定性，所以，我们提出了在快速的技术变革条件下，企业边界变动是有限外部化的理论假设。并选择了1998—2002年间我国各省市区高新技术产业发展与外包活动作为一个分析案例，验证的结果有力地支持了我们提出的理论假设。     

融资约束对企业成长的影响--基于创业板科技型企业数据

以初创期科技型企业为研究对象,选取创业板科技型企业作为样本,对样本数据无量纲化处理后进行实证分析,验证了融资约束对初创期科技型企业成长具有负面影响,并进一步提出了初创期科技型企业应提高资金运用效率、提升自身融资条件、积极拓展融资渠道、寻求科技型产业集群的协同发展,从而降低企业融资约束,提升发展动力。     

Firm Size and Growth Rate Variance: The Effects of Data Truncation

This paper discusses the effects of the existence of natural and/or exogenously imposed thresholds in firm size distributions on estimations of the relation between firm size and the variance in firm growth rates. We argue that these estimations are upwardly biased whenever the threshold operates on the same proxy that is used to calculate the growth rates. We show the potential impact of the bias on simulated data, suggest a methodology to improve these estimations, and present an empirical analysis on Dutch firms. The only stable relation that emerges is the negative relationship between firm size and growth rate variance.     

The Firm Size Distribution and Inter-Industry Diversification

We show that the stylized facts of the Firm Size Distribution (FSD) by age cohorts, as shown in Cabral and Mata (2003), bind within 4-digit manufacturing industries in the UK and Belgium. This paper investigates whether the time to build a portfolio of products from inter-industry diversification is a mechanism that helps explain the stylized facts of the FSD by age cohorts. We find that the degree of inter-industry diversification has a separate impact on firm size when controlling for age, amongst other factors. Using the techniques of Cabral and Mata, we find that inter-industry diversification does shift the FSD to the right, and more so in older age groups.     

Innovation Field Orientation and Its Effect on Innovativeness and Firm Performance

New product development (NPD) has become a prime source for gaining a competitive edge in the market. Although a large body of research has addressed the question of how to successfully manage individual innovation projects, the management of a firm's new product portfolio has received comparably less research attention. A phenomenon that has recently emerged on the research agenda is innovation field orientation. Such orientation is understood as the deliberate setup and management of multiple thematically related NPD projects. However, the facets and effects of innovation field orientation are still unexplored. In particular, this study is interested in (1) developing a concept of innovation field orientation, (2) investigating the extent to which innovation field orientation is an established part of the corporate strategic planning practice, and (3) assessing the direct and indirect performance effects of innovation field orientation. For the empirical analysis, data were collected through a mail survey and document analyses from 122 publicly listed firms. Tobin's q was used as an objective performance metric directly related to shareholder value. The results confirm that innovation field orientation is a phenomenon that prevails in practice. In addition, all defining aspects of this orientation have either direct or indirect effects on firm performance. Hence, those firms that deliberately specify and manage innovation fields have a more innovative product portfolio and are more successful than others. Specifically, the findings underline the performance relevance of formally framing innovation fields and assigning a critical mass of resources to them. In addition, empirical support is lent to the suggestion that innovation field orientation has strong indirect performance effects mediated by the innovativeness of the firm's new product portfolio. This implies that firms that deliberately specify focus areas, assign resources to, provide organizational framing for, and stimulate synergies between related NPD projects stand a better chance to achieve a more innovative new product portfolio. This again is highly appreciated by investors and results in a superior stock market evaluation of these firms.     

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Firm Performance: Drawing Attention to the Senior Team

Prior studies have argued entrepreneurial orientation (EO) plays an important role in explaining firm performance. This study aims to assess how senior team attributes moderate the relationship between EO and firm performance. For this purpose, an attention‐based perspective is adopted, focusing on attention scope as well as distributed and situated attention. By considering the role of senior team heterogeneity in broadening the attention scope of senior teams and the role of senior team shared vision in aligning distributed attention across organizational functions, this research investigates how senior teams may enhance the value‐creating potential of EO. In addition, we assess situated attention by including the notion of environmental dynamism and examining whether the role of the senior team attributes is contingent upon environmental conditions. Using a time‐lagged sample of 346 firms operating in various industries, we find that senior team heterogeneity helps firms to leverage their EO and improve their performance. Moreover, once environmental conditions are taken into account, results indicate that the absence of heterogeneity at senior team level may be particularly detrimental for firms operating in stable environments. The direct moderating effect of shared vision on the relationship between EO and performance is not substantiated. However, senior team shared vision has a positive impact for firms operating in dynamic environments, providing a premium for firms aiming to realize the inherent value of EO. Our research provides important implications for senior teams aiming to leverage their EO into increased firm performance. Evidence shows that while a heterogeneous team composition and senior team shared vision may provide several benefits, these advantages may fluctuate across environmental conditions.     

The Determinants of Pharmaceutical R&D Expenditures: Evidence from Japan

During the past 20 years, the world pharmaceutical industry has experienced a dramatic increase in R&D intensity. We apply and extend a model developed by Grabowski and Vernon (2000, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 10, 201–215) with a pooled data sample of the 15 publicly listed Japanese drug firms for the period 1987–1998. As in the original study, we find expected returns to be an important determinant of R&D spending in the Japanese drug industry, albeit considerably smaller than in the U.S., which is particularly obvious in the case of returns from newly introduced drugs. However, our results are sensitive to econometric model specification, in particular to controlling for serial correlation and to a dynamic specification of the baseline model. Likewise, estimates on financial constraints are sensitive to model specification, indicating that Japanese drug firms face small or no financial constraints. Our results are consistent with the general literature on R&D investment behaviour, yet raise some methodological questions with regard to the original study.