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.