R&;D in SMEs: a paradox?

This paper has three objectives: (1) to survey the relevant literature addressing the (apparent) paradox of Research & Development investments carried out within Small and Medium Enterprises; (2) to provide focused summaries of the articles in this special issue; (3) to draw some general conclusions in terms of policy implications.

R&;D,Size and Firm Growth in Taiwan‘s Electronics Industry

This paper documents the relationship between R&D, firm size, and growth rate for a panel data of Taiwanese electronics firms. Using GMM method to control for endogeneity of R&D, the main finding is that an increase in R&D induces a higher growth rate and this impact is particularly higher for small firms. Testing Gibrat’s law shows that small firms indeed have a higher growth rate than their larger counterparts, while size is independent with firm growth in the group of large-sized firms, supporting the weak form of Gibrat’s law.     

Europe's R&;D: Missing the Wrong Targets?

Europe is not delivering on its commitment under the Lisbon agenda to increase its R&;D-to-GDP ratio to 3% by 2010. But does the European Commission's practice of benchmarking each and every member state against the headline 3% figure make sense? R&;D intensity is influenced by industrial specialisation, but also by other factors such as a large integrated market for technology and a favourable environment for academic research. What can be done by the EU and by the governments of the member states to improve the situation?     

Effectiveness of R&;D tax incentives in small and large enterprises in Québec

In this paper we evaluate the effectiveness of R&D tax incentives in Quebec, using manufacturing firm data from 1997 to 2003 originating from R&D surveys, annual surveys of manufactures and administrative data. The estimated price elasticity of R&D is –0.10 in the short run and –0.14 in the long run, with slightly higher elasticities for small firms than for large firms. We show that there is a deadweight loss associated with level-based R&D tax incentives that is particularly acute for large firms. For small firms it is not sizeable enough to suppress the R&D additionality, at least not for quite a number of years after the initial tax change. Incremental R&D tax credits do not suffer from this deadweight loss and are from that perspective preferable to level-based tax incentives.

R&;D,International Trade and Creative Destruction—Empirical Findings from Finnish Manufacturing Industries*

The determinants of productivity-enhancing micro-level restructuring are examined empirically with a panel of the twelve Finnish manufacturing industries. It is hypothesized that R&D leads to productivity diversity among plants, which in turn leads to the gradual reshuffling of input shares in the presence of dynamic competitive pressure. The effect of the creative destruction on industry productivity growth is measured with the between-component of productivity decomposition. Econometric results indicate with reasonable robustness that R&D generates creative destruction with a lag of several years. Some evidence is found that imports stimulate productivity-enhancing restructuring, especially when domestic R&D is low.JEL classification: O12, 014, 019, O31, O47*This paper is based on the chapter 8 of my PhD thesis which has been accepted by the Helsinki School of Economics (2003). The research has received financial support from Tekes (the National Technology Agency), and from the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation. This paper has benefited from comments by Petri Böckerman, Pekka Ilmakunnas, Kabor Kezdi, and Petri Rouvinen, to whom I am grateful. I am also thankful to the referees for helpful comments. Lisa Roponen has checked my English. An earlier version of this paper has been presented at the EARIE 2002 conference in Madrid and at the Summer at CEU Workshop in Budapest in 2003. Data work and computations have been carried out at Statistics Finland, in accordance with the terms and conditions of confidentiality. I also wish to thank many individuals at Statistics Finland for their guidance regarding the properties of the data. Please contact the Research Laboratory of the Business Structures Unit, Statistics Finland, FIN-00022, Finland, for access to these data. The usual disclaimer applies.     

Is the R&;D behaviour of fast-growing SMEs different? Evidence from CIS III data for 16 countries

This paper studies the R&;D behaviour of fast growing SMEs using CIS III data for 16 countries. We group the countries into three categories of countries having roughly the same stage of technological development. Our first finding is that R&;D is more important to high-growth SMEs in countries that are closer to the technological frontier. The second finding is that high-growth SMEs are only more innovative than non-high-growth SMEs in countries close to the technological frontier. This suggests that gazelles derive much of their drive from the exploitation of comparative advantages. From a policy perspective, this indicates that there are important limits to centralising policies that aim to foster high-growth SMEs.     

How to improve the performance of R&;D alliance? An empirical analysis based on China’s pharmaceutical industry

The separation of science resources and the manufacturing industry in China has given rise to R&;D alliances between R&;D institutes and sponsoring enterprises. As a result, R&;D alliance of various types has become a main route of technology innovation in China. Drawing upon relevant literature on R&;D alliance management, this research empirically explores the impacts of relationship pattern, control strategy chosen by sponsoring enterprises, and alliance members’ continuity expectation on alliance performance. Results show that motivation-based alliance control approaches, including proper allocation of alliance control rights, sustained strengthening of alliance members’ continuity expectation, and enhancement of mutual relationship and friendship among alliance members, are more effective than process or outcome control approaches for improving alliance performance.     

Transformational leadership and R&D workers' multiple commitments: Do justice and span of control matter?

This study examines how transformational leaders influence research and development (R&D) workers' commitment to their organizations and leaders. The study investigates the mediating role of organizational justice (i.e., procedural and interactional) based on social exchange theory and the moderating role of span of control in this relationship. In a sample of 445 Turkish R&D personnel, the study finds that transformational leadership significantly influences followers' organizational commitment partially through procedural justice and their supervisory commitment partially through interactional justice. Second, the findings reveal that transformational leaders boost perceptions of procedural justice and organizational commitment when the span of control is relatively narrow. Interestingly, when the span of control is large, transformational leadership has significant positive effects on supervisory commitment, but no significant effects on organizational commitment among R&D workers.     

黑龙江省R&D投入强度灰预测

本文以1999年～2005年黑龙江省R&D投入强度作为原始数据,采用灰预测理论建立数列灰预测GM(1,1)模型,对黑龙江省2006年和2007年的R&D投入强度进行预测并得出了预测结果,黑龙江省2006年的R&D投入强度为0.9963,2007年为1.1121,经检验模型预测精度高达95.38%,拟合度很好。     

Market-oriented institutional change and R&D investments: Do business groups enhance advantage?

Emerging market firms (EMFs) are increasingly relying on innovation to find their competitive advantage, but our understanding of how institutional change affects firm innovation has been limited. We analyzed Korean manufacturing firms from 1994 to 2006 to test the proposition that market-oriented institutional change in an emerging economy alleviates firms’ financing constraints and monitoring problems and improves the effectiveness of their innovation activities. Institutional evolution in the economy was found to affect Korean business groups and independent firms differently. Institutional change reduced the financing constraints on independent firms more than for business group affiliates in R&D investment. Independent firms, however, appeared less capable than group affiliates of translating the benefits of improved institutional environments into efficient R&D investment. This asymmetry may lead to a wider gap in the efficiency of R&D investment between business group affiliates and independent firms.     

When do firms benefit from university–industry R&D collaborations? The implications of firm R&D focus on scientific research and technological recombination

Firms' access to academic discoveries through R&D collaborations has been shown to enhance their patent performance. However, increasing both internal and external R&D activities can lead to high knowledge redundancy and coordination costs. This paper examines what kind of R&D focus inside the firm will improve or reduce the benefits of R&D collaborations with universities. Our results show that technological recombination focus strengthens the relationship between university collaborations and patent performance, whereas scientific research focus weakens the relationship. These results also differ between young and old firms, implying that firms may shift their R&D focus according to their collaborative objectives.     

湖南工程机械企业的R&D合作

随着经济全球化的加深和国际经济竞争环境的日益激烈,企业间的研发合作已成为一种潮流.面对国际大型跨国工程机械企业在华投资的加大,湖南工程机械企业必须树立协作竞争的新观念,加强研发合作以应对挑战.本文分析了湖南工程机械企业加强研发合作的必要性,其优势所在,最后给出了几点政策建议和措施.     

R&D: Who does the R,who does the D?

This paper examines the determinants of the allocation of national R&D resources between research and development activities. We derive conditions under which a firm being outdistanced by a foreign rival in a two-stage international patent race would drop out, and relate those conditions to home-market size and to the race's cost and risk characteristics. Because of this “discouragement effect”, firms located in smaller markets appear as if they were, on average, less successful in transforming research expertise into commercial product development. We also show that in a two-sector model (R and D), the proportion of R&D resources going into product development as opposed to research increases with country size. Moreover, starting from a symmetric game and increasing the size of one country induces the opposite effect on other countries (a shift of R&D resources from development to research) through strategic interaction among research teams.     

Does easy start-up formation hamper incumbents’ R&D investment?

This paper investigates the implications that complementary assets needed for the formation of start-ups have on the innovative efforts of incumbent firms. In particular, we highlight a strategic incentive effect by which the innovative efforts of incumbents are decreasing in the availability of the complementary assets needed for the creation of a start-up. Furthermore, we argue that the R&D investments of incumbents are positively related to the presence of policy support to innovation, and to the firm’s endowment of human capital. The empirical relevance of our theoretical hypotheses is investigated—and supported—by using firm level data.     

政府补助、R&D投入与创业板公司绩效

在如今市场化竞争环境下,国家对科技创新愈发的重视,党的十九大提出了加强国家创新体系建设,以鼓励企业创新。而研发则是企业获取科技创新成果的途径、动力和源泉。文章以创业板2015—2018年上市公司为样本,运用实证方法,研究不同产权性质下,政府补助和R&D投入对企业绩效的影响。得出结论:政府补助与企业绩效的关系会受到产权性质的影响,只有非国企样本中体现出对绩效的正向促进作用;不论企业性质如何,当期研发投入和前期研发投入对绩效影响均体现为积极作用;政府补助对研发投入与企业绩效关系无显著调节作用。     

复合实物期权思想在R&D项目投资评估中的应用探析

本文将复合实物期权的思想引入到对R&D项目投资决策的过程中,分析了R&D项目投资的特点以及传统投资决策方法的缺陷,指出复合实物期权的评估方法对于R&D项目投资项目的评估更为完善。     

机构投资者对高新技术企业R&D影响的研究进展

高新技术企业的R&D投入是企业提高自身竞争力的重要手段,然而企业的发展离不开投资方协助。目前,国内对于机构投资者对高新技术企业R&D的主题研究大多从公司治理的角度出发,视角分散。本文以对国内外各类机构投资者与企业R&D活动投入关系主题的研究文献为对象,梳理了各个类型机构投资者持股对R&D的影响。本文可以为研究机构投资者在研究高新技术企业发展提供一定的启示。