(International) R&D collaboration and SMEs: The effectiveness of targeted public R&D support schemes

This study analyses the impact and effectiveness of targeted public support for R&D investment at the firm level. We test whether the policy design aiming at incentivizing (international) collaboration and R&D in SMEs achieves input as well as output additionality. Our results show that the targeted public subsidies trigger R&D spending, especially so in internationally collaborating SMEs. We further evaluate the different impact of privately financed and publicly induced R&D investment on innovation performance. The results confirm that the publicly induced R&D is productive as it translates into marketable product innovations. While both types of R&D investments trigger significant output effects, the effect of policy-induced R&D investment on sales from market novelties is highest for international collaborators as well as for SMEs.     

政府科技补助对企业创新投入的门槛效应——基于科技型中小企业的经验研究

本文基于我国2009年-2013年112家科技型中小企业的面板数据,以资助强度作为门槛变量,实证检验政治关联、政府科技补助对科技型中小企业创新投入的作用效果。结果表明:(1)对于我国科技型中小企业而言,政府科技补助具有显著的激励效应,没有挤出效应;(2)政治关联程度对政府科技补助与科技型中小企业创新投入之间关系具有削弱作用,但不显著;(3)随着政府科技补助强度的增大,政府科技补助的激励效应却会不断降低。     

Do public subsidies stimulate private R&D spending?

The objective of this paper is to contribute to the empirical literature that evaluates the effects of public R&D support on private R&D investment. We apply a matching approach to analyze the effects of public R&D support in Spanish manufacturing firms. We examine whether or not the effects are different depending on the size of the firm and the technological level of the sectors in which the firms operate. We evaluate the effect of R&D subsidies on the subsidized firms, considering both the effect of subsidies on firms that would have performed R&D in the absence of public support and also the effect of inducement to undertake R&D activities. We also analyze the effect that concession of subsidies might have on firms which do not enjoy this type of support. The main conclusions indicate absence of “crowding-out”, either full or partial, between public and private spending and that some firms - mainly small and operating in low technology sectors - might not have engaged in R&D activities in the absence of subsidies.     

The impact of the French policy mix on business R&D: How geography matters

Based on a spatial extension of an R&D investment model, this paper measures the macroeconomic impact of the French R&D policy mix on business R&D using regional data. Our measure takes into account not only the direct effect of policies but also indirect effects generated by the existence of spatial interaction between regions. Using a unique database containing information on the levels of various R&D policy instruments received by firms in French NUTS3 regions over the period 2001–2011, our estimates of a spatial Durbin model with structural breaks and fixed effects reveal the existence of a negative spatial dependence among R&D investments in regions. In this context, while a-spatial estimates would conclude that all instruments have a crowding-in effect, we show that national subsidies are the only instrument that is able to generate significant crowding-in effects. On the contrary, it seems that the design, size and spatial allocation of funds from the other instruments (tax credits, local subsidies, European subsidies) lead them to act (in the French context) as beggar-thy-neighbor policies.     

R&D spillovers from subsidized firms that fail: Tracing knowledge by following employees across firms

Public R&D subsidies aim to target particularly risky R&D and R&D with large externalities. One would expect many such projects to fail from a commercial point of view, but they may still produce knowledge with social value. Such knowledge is likely to be embodied in workers or teams of workers. I test for knowledge diffusion from subsidised technology firms transmitted through the labor market. The specific case analysed is a series of Norwegian IT-programs so far considered unsuccessful. It has been argued that know-how built up during the programs still ‘fertilize’ the IT-industry. I find limited support for this claim.     

R&D subsidies & external collaborative breadth: Differential gains and the role of collaboration experience

External collaboration breadth is important for firms to acquire the knowledge needed to innovate. In this paper, we combine cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the Spanish Panel of Technological Innovation Survey (PITEC) to examine the indirect impact of R&D subsidies on firm external collaboration breadth. We contribute to understanding of the indirect impacts of R&D subsidies by first providing strong evidence of an economically significant average positive impact of R&D subsidies on firm external collaboration breadth. Second, our results advance understanding of the differential impacts of R&D subsidies by revealing the vast heterogeneity of the impact at the firm level, where approximately only half of treated firms experience a positive collaboration impact from R&D subsidies, while the remainder experience no impact or a negative effect. Finally, we advance understanding of the characteristics explaining the differential impact of R&D subsidies on external collaboration breadth by utilising the organisational learning literature to demonstrate the important role of firm collaboration experience.     

The impact of firm participation in R&D programmes on R&D partnerships

R&D subsidies designed to encourage innovation efforts by firms may have intended and unintended effects on the way they organize their innovation process. We present empirical evidence on how R&D subsidies affect firms’ R&D cooperation strategies. In particular, we investigate whether receiving public R&D subsidies affect the probability that a firm will set up an R&D partnership with a public research organization (PRO), or with other firms. Our main findings are: (i) public support significantly increases the chances that a firm will cooperate with a PRO, and (ii) public support also increases the likelihood that a firm will establish private partnerships, but to a smaller extent and only when firms have intangible knowledge assets. These results suggest that public R&D programmes trigger a behavioural change in firms’ R&D partnerships, alleviating barriers to cooperation.     

技术创新与战略技术联盟——我国中小企业增强R&D能力的分析

创新是工业企业持续增长的关键 ,而创新的动力来自于企业的R&D能力。本文首先分析了中小企业R&D活动的特点 ,通过考察美国半导体制造技术战略联盟Sematech ,提出 ,应鼓励我国的中小企业与科研机构及大学之间建立战略技术联盟 ,以提高中小企业的R&D能力 ,进而企业的技术和产品竞争力     

Factors affecting university-industry R&D projects: The importance of searching, screening and signalling

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the determinants of research cooperation between firms and Public research organisations (PROs) for a sample of innovating small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The econometric analysis is based on the results of the KNOW survey carried out in seven EU countries during 2000. In contrast to earlier works that provide information about the importance of PROs’ research, we know the number of firm/PRO collaborative research and development (R&D) projects. This allows us to study the determinants of firm collaboration with PROs in terms of both the propensity of a firm to undertake R&D projects with a university (do they cooperate or not) and the extent of this collaboration (number of R&D projects). Two questions are addressed. Which firms cooperated with PROs? And what are the firm characteristics that might explain the number of R&D projects with PROs? The results of our analysis point to two major phenomena. First, the propensity to forge an agreement with an academic partner depends on the ‘absolute size’ of the industrial partner. Second the openness of firms to the external environment, as measured by their willingness to search, screen and signal, significantly affects the development of R&D projects with PROs. Our findings suggest that acquiring knowledge through the screening of publications and involvement in public policies positively affects the probability of signing an agreement with a PRO, but not the number of R&D projects developed. In fact, firms that outsource research and development, and patent to protect innovation and to signal competencies show higher levels of collaboration.     

Does public R&D funding crowd-in private R&D investment? Evidence from military R&D expenditures for US states

Defense R&D represents the largest component of US public R&D spending and historically has promoted a wide range of civilian innovations. However, the empirical evidence on the impact of defense R&D is scant and it does not provide conclusive results on the possible crowding-in (-out) effects on private R&D investment. Exploiting a longitudinal dataset linking public R&D obligations to private R&D expenditures for US states, we investigate the impact of defense R&D on privately-financed R&D. To address potential endogeneity in the allocation of funds, we use an instrumental variable identification strategy leveraging the differential exposure of US states to national shocks in federal military R&D. We document considerable crowding-in effects with elasticities in the 0.11–0.14 range. These positive effects extend also to the labor market, when focusing on employment in selected R&D intensive industries and especially for engineers.     

政府补贴对农业企业R&D投资行为的影响研究

政府创新补贴是一国扶持农业企业技术创新的重要政策工具,政策目标是促进农业企业的R&D投入杠杆效应而非形成补贴依赖,但补贴绩效如何尚缺乏系统研究。本文利用手工方式从涉农上市企业公开披露信息整理出的2012-2014年三年样本数据,构建联立方程模型实证分析了政府补贴对农业企业R&D投资的影响效应及其差异性。研究结果发现,政府补贴对涉农企业R&D投入的激励效应显著,但行业之间存在较大差异;涉农企业的绩效增长短期对主营业务R&D投入会发生杠杆效应,但长期来看效应微弱,R&D投资行为具有一定的补贴依赖倾向。此外,涉农上市企业内部治理与经营水平也是影响政府补贴对R&D创新投入效率的重要因素。最后,本文从政府补贴的资助对象、方式和监管补贴用途等方面提出了相应的政策建议。     

How to allocate R&D (and other) subsidies: An experimentally tested policy recommendation

This paper evaluates the typically applied rules for awarding R&D subsidies. We identify two sources of inefficiency: the selection based on a ranking of individual projects, rather than complete allocations, and the failure to induce competition among applicants in order to extract and use information about the necessary funding. In order to correct these inefficiencies we propose mechanisms that include some form of an auction in which applicants bid for subsidies. Our proposals are tested in a simulation and in controlled lab experiments. The results suggest that adopting our proposals may considerably improve the allocation.     

Two for the price of one?: Additionality effects of R&D subsidies: A comparison between Flanders and Germany

We empirically test whether public R&D subsidies crowd out private R&D investment in Flanders and Germany, using firm level data from the Flemish and German part of the Community Innovation Surveys (CIS III and IV). Both the non-parametric matching estimator and the conditional difference-in-differences estimator with repeated cross-sections (CDiDRCS) clearly indicate that the crowding-out hypothesis can be rejected: funded firms are significantly more R&D active than non-funded firms. In the domain of additionality effects of R&D subsidies, this paper is the first to apply the CDiDRCS method.     

政府研发补贴、高管团队职能背景多样性与企业研发投入

回应“在获得政府研发补贴后，企业职能背景多样的高管团队能否帮助企业优化资源整合与分配，降低企业研发风险、提高研发活动预期收益”的问题，为进一步优化政府研发补贴政策制定和实施提供微观经验证据和理论依据。基于高层梯队理论与信息决策理论，以2008—2018年我国A股上市企业非平衡面板数据为样本，实证检验政府研发补贴对企业研发投入的影响以及高管团队职能背景多样性对政府研发补贴效应的调节作用。结果显示：政府研发补贴对企业研发投入有显著的正向影响，并且该促进作用在非国有企业组中更加明显；整体而言，高管职能背景多样化有利于政府研发补贴政策效应的发挥，激励企业增加研发投入，但影响效果也会受到企业性质和企业规模的影响。由此提出，创新政策制定者在确定评价指标和甄选帮扶对象时可将企业性质和企业内部高管团队特征纳入考量指标；企业在招贤纳士时要重视高管团队整体职能背景的互补性与完备性。     

专利保护和加计扣除政策能够促进私人农业技术创新么？

摘要：专利保护和加计扣除政策是政府保护和激励私人技术创新的重要手段。本文利用2005-2015年间77家农业上市公司公开数据，研究了专利保护和加计扣除政策对私人农业研发投入与研发投入强度的影响。结果表明，专利保护政策并未促进私人农业研发投入或者提高私人研发投入强度，而加计扣除政策则显著提高了私人的研发投入和研发投入强度。通过设置专利保护和加计扣除政策的交互项，发现专利保护的增强削弱了加计扣除政策的溢入效应。本文结论验证了已有的部分研究结论，建议进一步完善专利保护政策，加强加计扣除政策的实施广度和强度，推动国家创新体系建设。     

The ex ante assessment of knowledge spillovers: Government R&D policy, economic incentives and private firm behavior

This paper investigates the role of government R&D subsidy programs in stimulating knowledge spillovers. R&D subsidies are an effective public policy instrument when knowledge spillovers exist yet ex ante it is difficult to identify projects that have the greatest potential to increase innovation and economic growth. This paper derives a set of project and firm attributes that the literature finds generate knowledge spillovers and uses data on project proposals to estimate the degree to which a government R&D program conforms. We find that projects that were awarded R&D subsidies were more likely to have attributes such as participation in new research joint ventures and connections to universities and other firms. Following the post-award activities of firm, we find that receipt of a government R&D subsidy increased the funding from other sources when compared to firms that were not awarded funding.     

财政补助、研发投入与企业财务风险——基于A股上市公司的证据

对现行研发投入财政补助规定分析发现,财政补助在激励企业增大研发投入的同时也会增大企业财务风险,财政补助门槛会造成企业研发投入集中分布在略高于门槛比例要求的水平上.运用2010-2018年A股上市公司数据的实证显示,企业财务风险水平与研发投入比例和财政补助比例显著正相关,销售收入为5 000万元～2亿元的企业研发投入比例集中分布在4％～5％,销售收入大于2亿元的企业研发投入比例集中分布于3％～4％,研发投入比例略低于门槛要求的企业明显偏少.建议有关财政补助认定标准中引入企业财务风险水平管控指标,在激励企业加大研发投入的同时促进企业管控财务风险;适当降低财政补助企业研发投入门槛要求,弱化企业为博取财政补助而采取过度冒险、增大研发投入行为.     

Selective subsidies,entrepreneurial founders' human capital,and access to R&D alliances

We investigate if and to what extent the receipt of a “selective” subsidy – a public subsidy awarded through a competitive procedure – helps new technology-based firms (NTBFs) to access R&D alliances. In particular, we theoretically enquire and empirically analyze which founding team-level characteristics allow NTBFs to: i) get a selective subsidy; and ii) access an R&D alliance with another firm or a public research organization/university, once the subsidy is awarded. We use a sample of 902 NTBFs that operate in Italy, where industrial policy has never had an explicit and exclusive mandate neither for targeting NTBFs nor for easing their access to R&D networks. By means of several identification strategies and estimation methods, our results point to the relevance of selective subsidies in facilitating NTBFs to enter R&D alliances, independently from the objective of the policy measure. Second, founders’ technical education figures as a key determinant to get the first selective subsidy. Finally, founders’ previous industry-specific work experience allows NTBFs to better exploit the selective subsidy, by positively moderating the impact of the subsidy on the likelihood to establish a corporate R&D alliance.     

Managing open innovation projects with science-based and market-based partners

This paper examines the relationship between (outside-in) open innovation and the financial performance of R&D projects, drawing on a unique dataset that contains information on the open innovation practices, management and performance of 489 R&D projects of a large European multinational firm. We introduce two types of open innovation partnerships – science-based and market-based partnerships – and examine their relationships with project financial performance. In addition, we investigate whether the open innovation—project performance relationships are influenced by the way how R&D projects are managed. Our results show that R&D projects with open innovation partnerships are associated with a better financial performance providing that they are managed in the most suitable way. Market-based partnerships are positively correlated with project performance if a formal project management process is used; however these partnerships are associated with a lower performance for loosely managed projects. In contrast, science-based partnerships are associated with higher project revenues for loosely managed projects only.     

Persistent heterogeneity of R&D intensities within sectors: Evidence and policy implications

Do firms in the same sector converge towards the same R&D intensities? Previous research has often assumed this to be true. A closer examination, using microdata from the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard for the years 2000–2015, shows considerable heterogeneity in R&D intensities among firms in the same sector, and that this heterogeneity persists over time. Statistical tests of convergence show that the variation in R&D intensities does not decrease over time (i.e. no σ-convergence), although firms with an R&D intensity below the industry average do seem to catch up with the leaders (i.e. evidence of β-convergence). Overall, firms in the same industry do not converge to a common R&D intensity. Policy implications are discussed.