(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.     

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.     

Innovation and R&D spillover effects in Spanish regions: A spatial approach

This paper analyses the spatial patterns of innovation, its regional interdependencies and evolution, as well as its role in determining local innovation in Spanish regions. Results indicate the suitability of a trade-based regional proximity when considering spatial spillovers in innovation. In this context, not only local capacity is relevant in determining domestic innovation, but also spatial innovation spillovers, which result mainly from efforts in both higher education and public administration. Moreover, a minimum level of regional development is required to improve the effectiveness of R&D policies. Therefore, it is necessary for R&D policies to act in combination with other policies focused on the improvement of socio-economic and structural determinants of regional innovative performance.     

R&D support programs in developing countries: The Turkish experience

In this study, the determinants of private R&D investment are examined at the level of firms in the Turkish manufacturing industry. We focus our attention on the effect of public R&D support programs. Our findings indicate that public R&D support significantly and positively affects private R&D investment. There seems to be even an “acceleration effect” on firm-financed R&D expenditures. Smaller R&D performers benefit more from R&D support and perform more R&D. In addition, technology transfer from abroad and domestic R&D activity show up as complementary processes. Given the scarcity of studies on R&D support in technologically weaker economies, our hope is that the less-developed countries can exploit these findings in constructing socially beneficial technology policies.     

R&D, knowledge spillovers and company productivity performance

Using company accounts data for 5 countries (US, UK, Japan, France and Germany) we analyse the relationship between intangible assets and productivity. We integrate the company data with industry information on tangible and intangible investments and skill composition of the labour force. The industry data are summarised in two different taxonomies, factor and skill intensive groups, which account for differences in the knowledge intensity and innovative activities within sectors. The results provide evidence of higher productivity in R&D and skill intensive industries. This can be interpreted as evidence in favour of the presence of spillover effects.     

Public selection and financing of R&D cooperative projects: Credit versus subsidy funding

In this article we develop an analytical model of the selection process for R&D cooperative projects, to study the factors that motivate public project selection and corresponding funding, using two different financial instruments: subsidies and credits. For this purpose, we propose a three stage empirical strategy to analyse the differential individual effects of several factors on the decisions taken by the public agency. This analysis is based on project level data from cooperative R&D project calls under the Spanish PROFIT initiative, for the period 2000-2003. The main results show that the public agency uses the two financial instruments to address different objectives. First, some projects close to the market are well supported through credits, while basic research projects receive only selective support in the form of subsidies. Second, there is significant diversity in the selection and funding of technological areas. Third, regarding the explicit goal of fostering cooperation, the public agency selectively favours partnerships with universities and technology institutes through the award of subsidies. However, there seems to be less incentive for large consortia. Fourth, there are significant regional differences among financed projects and, also, our data show sharp yearly fluctuations.     

Tax incentives and R&D activity: Firm-level evidence from Taiwan

This paper investigates the effect of tax incentives on R&D activities in Taiwanese manufacturing firms. The propensity score matching (PSM) estimates show that recipients of R&D tax credits appear on average to have 53.80% higher R&D expenditures than that they do without receiving tax credits, while there is no significantly higher growth rate of R&D expenditure. This study further employs the panel instrumental variable (IV) and generalized method of moment (GMM) techniques to control for endogeneity of R&D tax credits and firm heterogeneity in determining R&D expenditure. The R&D tax credit is witnessed to exhibit a significantly positive influence on R&D expenditure and its growth, especially for electronics firms. The marginal effect is moderate, ranging from 0.094 to 0.120. Specifically, the R&D elasticity concerning tax credits tends to increase gradually along with the approaching expiration of R&D tax credits measure, lending a supportive view on its efficacy.     

A temporal perspective on repeated ties across university-industry R&D consortia

Divergent time norms between participating organizations constitute a central barrier to cross-sectoral collaborations. We unpack this tension by studying two distinct time-utilization strategies of university and industry in 1845 R&D consortia. The paper shows that collaborating organizations that are subject to divergent time norms can shift the time focus in their favor through the strategic timing of repeated ties. If university-industry consortia are repeated, this repetition tends to take place either at the beginning of the consortium (parallel timing) or at the end (sequential timing) but typically not in the middle. Industry partners seek to “compress time” by working on different consortia in parallel and therefore want to repeat a collaboration early, whereas universities seek to “extend time” through sequential timing of consortia, i.e., repeat a collaboration at the end or after a consortium has ended. We provide a qualitative substantiation of the identified time-utilization strategies and show that both options coexist in multipartner consortia.     

R&D internationalization, R&D collaboration and public knowledge institutions in small economies: Evidence from Finland and the Netherlands

This paper investigates domestic and foreign innovating firms’ determinants of R&D collaboration with domestic universities and public knowledge institutes in Finland and the Netherlands. We put particular emphasis on the impact of incoming academic spillovers on the probability to co-operate with these public R&D institutes.Based on data from Community Innovation Surveys we find that foreign firms in the Netherlands are less likely to co-operate with domestic public knowledge institutions than domestic firms, while in Finland no significant difference can be detected. Another result is that incoming knowledge spillovers are an important determinant for R&D collaboration with domestic public knowledge institutions in both countries. In case of foreign firms in Finland, incoming knowledge spillovers affect the probability to co-operate with public knowledge institutions more positively compared to domestic firms. For the Netherlands no substantial difference could be found in this respect. Further, innovating firms in Finland that require academic or basic knowledge do not co-operate significantly more with public knowledge institutions than those that need applied knowledge. At the same time they are willing to share knowledge with public R&D partners. In the Netherlands innovating firms that require relatively more basic than applied knowledge, increase the probability of co-operation with Dutch universities and public knowledge institutions but there is reluctance to share proprietary knowledge with public R&D partners. For both countries no significant difference between foreign and domestic firms with regard to academic knowledge requirements could be found. This raises the issue whether Finnish innovation policies with a strong focus on R&D co-operation provide incentives for strategic behaviour by domestic public partners to put more emphasis on applied research.     

Differences in the rates of return to R&D for European and US young leading R&D firms

This paper examines the sources of Europe's lagging business R&D performance relative to the US, particularly the role played by missing young leading innovators in high technology intensive sectors in Europe. It investigates through econometric analysis differences in the rates of return to R&D of European and US large R&D firms. It finds that, while in the US, young firms succeed in realizing significantly higher rates of return to R&D as compared to their older counterparts, including in high-tech sectors, European firms fail to generate significant rates of return, even if they are Yollies and even if they are in high-tech sectors. These findings can at least partly explain why Europe has less R&D intensive young leading innovators in high technology intensive sectors.     

The effectiveness of subsidies revisited: Accounting for wage and employment effects in business R&D

The present paper investigates the effectiveness of public subsidies on business enterprise research in a panel of OECD countries. We contribute to the literature by explicitly distinguishing between the effects of a subsidy on R&D employment and expenditure, thereby accounting for a potential increase in scientists’ wages. We employ instrumental variable regressions to address endogeneity problems of the subsidization. The results indicate that subsidies are effective in generating additional research expenditure. Expenditure for business research increases by roughly 20% more than employment. We take this as evidence that subsidies may raise scientists’ wages given standard production functions.     

R&D offshoring and the productivity growth of European regions

The recent increase in R&D offshoring has raised fears that knowledge and competitiveness in advanced countries may be at risk of ‘hollowing out’. At the same time, economic research has stressed that this process is also likely to allow some reverse technology transfer and foster growth at home. This paper addresses this issue by investigating the extent to which R&D offshoring is associated with productivity dynamics of European regions.     

Freerider behaviour and the public finance of R&D activities in enterprises: the case of the Spanish low interest credits for R&D

This paper analyses the freeriding behaviour in the case of public finance for R&D activities in enterprises. It will start with a brief discussion about the concept of freeriding and its importance to justify public support measures and offers a review of the methods, indicators and results reflected in the evaluation studies.In the second part of the paper, the impact of the Spanish low interest credits for R&D projects for individual firms will be analysed. A profile of the “freerider firms” will be offered, defined as those supported firms whose innovative efforts do not depend on public aid and probably would or could have carried out the same level of innovative activities without public support. Moreover, the paper presents some evidence that firms with a freerider behaviour show a lower level of goal achievement related to their technical and commercial objectives and consider the learning effects as less important than the other firms. This could suggest, indirectly, that freeriders generate fewer externalities available for the production system as a whole—than the non-freerider firms.     

Determinants of R&D investment: The Extreme-Bounds-Analysis approach applied to 26 OECD countries

This paper investigates the determinants of R&D investment at the national level with an emphasis on the roles of patent rights protection, international technology transfer through trade and FDI, and economic growth, in addition to the essentials of human capital accumulation and the number of scientific researchers. The Extreme-Bounds-Analysis (EBA) approach is applied to examine the robustness and sensitivity of these factors.The results of the EBA tests on data from 26 OECD countries from 1996 to 2006 showed that tertiary education and the proportion of scientific researchers in a country were robust determinants that had positive effects on R&D intensity. Foreign technology inflows had a robust and negative impact on domestic R&D. Patent rights protection and the income growth rate are fragile determinants of R&D investment.     

Effect of R&D programmes on the formation of university-industry-government networks: comparative analysis of Japanese R&D programmes

Japan has established several R&D programmes since the 1980s aimed at basic and fundamental R&D in response to the criticism of its free-riding on Western basic research. In some of these programmes, the linkages between university, industry and government have been a requirement for formation or selection of projects. In this paper, it is investigated how five Japanese R&D programmes promote inter-sectoral and inter-institutional networks. The result shows that the projects of the Next Generation Programme for pre-competitive research formed few but multiple university-industry-government linkages within each project by designing the complementary relationships among the participants. Linkages between private companies were not much formed except for the projects of the ERATO Programme, in which researchers temporarily leave their own institutes. The funds for more basic research was found to have little effect on the formation of networks within projects but do form the linkages outside the projects.     

Evaluating the impact of R&D tax credits on innovation: A microeconometric study on Canadian firms

This study examines the effect of R&D tax credits on innovation activities of Canadian manufacturing firms. Over the 1997-1999 period the Federal and Provincial R&D tax credit programs were used by more than one third of all manufacturing firms and by close to two thirds of firms in high-technology sectors. We investigate the average effect of R&D tax credits on a series of innovation indicators such as: number of new products, sales with new products, originality of innovation, etc. using a non-parametric matching approach. Compared to a hypothetical situation in the absence of R&D tax credits, recipients of tax credits show significantly better scores on most but not all performance indicators. We therefore conclude that tax credits lead to additional innovation output.     

政府采购促进技术创新政策效果空间计量评估

本文通过构建空间计量模型,基于省际面板数据对中国政府采购促进技术创新政策效果进行了科学评估,研究发现中国政府采购政策在实施初期阶段不仅没有促进技术创新,反而显著地阻碍了创新,但随着中国政府采购政策自主创新激励目标的确定,其政策效果有所改善,但到目前为止其促进技术创新的政策功能仍十分有限。为此提出了遵守国际规则,建立和完善创新导向型政府采购政策体系;完善制度设计,遏制寻租行为,营造良好的创新环境;优化政府采购结构,强化创新激励导向等政策启示,以期为未来改进和完善政府采购政策提供科学依据。     

Location, collocation and R&D alliances in the European ICT industry

This paper argues that spatial proximity plays a role in determining the propensity of firms to engage in R&D alliances. Drawing from economic geography, network theory and innovation theory, we discuss how prior collocation can affect the propensity to engage in R&D alliances, arguing that alliances can act both as a substitute and as a complement to collocation. Using a novel dataset matching alliances and patent data for the European ICT industry, we show that alliances are complementary to prior collocation (at both national and sub-national regional level) of firm’s R&D labs. In such an intra-industry, oligopolistic scenario, firms strategically use R&D alliances as a means to limit knowledge flows and protect competences, rather than to promote knowledge flows. Furthermore, while a common institutional context is important to promote collaboration, because of the high level of R&D internationalisation as well as the complex social networks within an oligopolistic industry, national institutional contexts are less relevant.     

Comparing firms’ triadic patent applications across countries: Is there a gap in terms of R&D effort or a gap in terms of performances?

This paper addresses the question of national differences as regard the number of triadic patents applied for by inventors from several OECD countries. The key idea is to determine whether such differences should be attributed to differences in R&D expenditures or rather to some other reasons, mainly institutional or behavioural ones. With this aim in view, both a macro-economic analysis, based on aggregate data for triadic patent counts and R&D expenditures and a micro-economic analysis based on firms’ data from three selected sectors are performed. In both cases, the methodological focus is made on the introduction, the definition and the estimation of a national index of relative efficiency in standard count data models. The main empirical findings are that there is a strong heterogeneity in terms of performance among European countries and a strong intra-country heterogeneity among sectors. This suggests that, in the field of innovation policies, there is a need for “tailored” solutions reflecting the specificities of each innovation system. Moreover, we show that European countries over-perform the United States in some high-tech sectors where the leadership of American firms is traditionally alleged, whereas European firms fail to keep up in more traditional sectors.     

Academic scientists in corporate R&D: A theoretical model

What motivates some firms to hire star academics? This paper provides a theoretical framework that combines several factors known to influence a firm's hiring decision of scientists capable of conducting both, research and development activities. The targeted type, reflecting the scientist's academic ability, is endogenous. When research and development activities are not strong substitutes, the optimal contract induces the scientist to engage in multitasking and the firm targets applicants with either the highest or the lowest type. Scientist with the lowest ability to conduct academic research are hired in environments where investments in absorptive capacity have low returns, academic publications generate substantial negative externalities for the firm, and/or the academic sector offers desirable outside options. When academic ability is not verifiable, the contract must only appeal to scientists with the targeted ability. Top scientists may need to be overcompensated for their research outcomes while low ability scientists may be overly compensated for their development outcomes. This, in turn, leads the hiring decision to be biased in favour of high-ability scientists when research and development activities exhibit a strong complementarity. By opposition, scientists with the lowest ability are more frequently targeted when the cost of conducting both activities increases.