Evaluating the NASA small business innovation research program: preliminary evidence of a trade-off between commercialization and basic research

In 1982, the Small Business Innovation Development Act established the small business innovation research (SBIR) program. This program reserves a percentage of federal agencies’ extramural R&D budgets for research projects conducted by small businesses. When this Act was reauthorized in 1992, the selection criteria for funding dramatically increased the likelihood of funding for projects that promised to lead to commercial success. Using data from a survey of the SBIR program award recipients at NASA Langley Research Center, we address three questions about this change: (i) was there a shift to projects with more commercial potential? (ii) did these projects experience higher rates of commercial success? and (iii) was there a reduction in basic research accompanying the increased commercial success? Our analysis suggests, the answer to all three of these questions is ‘yes’.     

The determinants of success of R&D projects: evidence from American-Israeli research alliances

Until 1997, a basic premise of Israeli R&D support programs had been the principle of neutrality—all eligible projects were funded. With a binding budget constraint, the government had to select the projects it funded and thus to depart from neutrality. An optimal departure would favor those projects that have less of a chance to succeed without support. In this paper, I examine the performance of government supported collaborative research projects. I find that size and organizational form affect the probability of technical success and duration to commercialization in a way that suggests departing from neutrality by preferring less established firms.     

国际创新统计体系演化与国内发展研究

从产业发展到创新驱动,全球经济在探索中寻求新的发展方向。以研究与发展（R&D）为核心的科技统计为量化经济发展要素新动能提供了条件,以创新行为及其网络互动为核心的创新统计工作为理解科技经济互动提供了新平台。发达国家创新统计实践已形成较好的规范体系和国际标准,我国在借鉴国际经验的同时,也初步建立了创新统计体系,为进一步推进创新驱动发展战略打下了重要基础。未来仍需以国际规范为基本标准,适度平衡我国发展特色,尊重统计规律,重视统计创新人才与创新研究,全面推动我国创新统计体系建设。     

The disaggregated technology production function: A new model of university and corporate research

Technology and the process that produces it, research and development (R&D), are typically characterized as homogeneous entities. In reality, the typical industrial technology is composed of three elements: a generic technology base, supporting infratechnologies, and proprietary market applications (innovations). The first two have public good characteristics, and therefore, explicitly modeling them is essential for public policy purposes. The fundamental relationships among these elements require a technology production function that captures the supporting roles of the public good elements in creating proprietary applied technology. These critical quasi-public technology goods are supplied to a significant extent by exogenous (external) sources: central corporate research labs, government labs, and increasingly, universities. The expanding university role beyond basic research complicates the structure and functioning of the national R&D establishment and increases the need for a more accurate model of technological change to better inform R&D policy.Moreover, in assessing the resulting applied technology's impact on economic growth, both the general and partial equilibrium literatures enter the technology variable into a production function with the common “production” assets (physical capital and labor). Such models obscure an important distinction between technology and these production assets—namely, the fact that technology is primarily a “demand-shifting” asset. As such, its role is correctly specified only when combined with the other major demand-shifting asset, marketing. Allocations to these two assets vary across competing firms implying a spatial model of competition, while still providing traceability to the exogenous sources of public good technology elements, such as universities.     

跨国公司在华设立研发机构:动因、影响及对策

目前，跨国公司在华设立研发机构已经成为新的投资热点。从跨国公司自身发展需要和东道国人才优势及优惠政策这两个角度，探讨了跨国公司在华设立研发机构的动因，分析了这一投资方式对中国经济产生的积极作用和负面影响，并提出中国政府和企业的对策及建议。     

Determinants of successful R&D cooperation in Japanese small businesses: The impact of organizational and contractual characteristics

Using original survey data on Japanese small businesses, this paper analyses the impact of the organizational and contractual characteristics of cooperative R&D, such as membership structure, partner relationship, external support, and rules of cost and outcome sharing, on the probability of the technological and commercial success of the project. Empirical results suggest that cooperative R&D is more successful, the higher the quality and quantity of external resources available through cooperation, and the lower the transaction and coordination costs required for such arrangements. Moreover, we found that the determinants of technological and commercial success differ considerably.     

跨国公司研发国际化下的中国自主创新研究

R＆D国际化是跨国公司发展的一个新趋势，我国作为世界经济的一个重要组成部分，当然也受其影响。我国应该如何在跨国公司R＆D国际化下实现自主创新，受到了广泛的关注。随着中国经济的发展，中国市场在世界市场中。的地位不断加强，跨国公司在中国的R＆D投资也逐年增加。这对中国社会经济发展、科技进步的影响不断扩大：知何、进一步吸引跨国公司到中国进行研发投资，如何应对跨国公司研发国际化给中国带来的挑战，已经成为中国政府和企业。面临的一个急需解决的问题。     

The nanotech versus the biotech revolution: Sources of productivity in incumbent firm research

Does the adaptation of incumbent firms to new methods of inventing follow similar patterns across industries and inventions? We investigate this question in the context of the revolutionary scientific advances enabling biotechnology and nanotechnology, both of which represent inventions of methods of inventing for incumbent firms. We hypothesize that an incumbent firm's ability to exploit these new methods of invention depends initially on access to tacit knowledge on how to employ the new methods. Over time, however, as firms learn and/or the knowledge becomes codified in routine procedures or commercially available equipment, inventive output is more highly dependent on traditional R&D investments. We empirically test these hypotheses on two longitudinal samples over the 21-year time period between 1980 and 2000: 80 incumbent pharmaceutical firms generating 15,607 biotechnology patents, and 249 firms across a diverse set of industries that were granted a total of 3236 nanotechnology patents. We find broad support for our conjectures.     

A case analysis of semantic technologies for R&D intermediation information management

It is evident that companies and research centres can find a myriad of instruments to fund their R&D (Research & Development) activities. Due to the dynamics of the information management in these circumstances there is a need for intermediary businesses intervention. Consequently, intermediary companies are thus involved in a complex process that needs to be managed and controlled. Within this scenario an Information Technology (IT) platform, named RDi-Advise, was developed by EgeoIT using semantic technologies to support R&D process decisions. This case analysis describes the development and implementation of the platform including the lessons learned during the activity period.     

政府补助对新能源上市公司创新绩效的影响机制研究

本文以2013-2017年新能源行业的265家企业为样本,运用泊松回归和负二项回归估计方法研究了政府补助促进新能源上市公司创新绩效的内在机制,结果表明,政府直接补助和税费返还均对新能源上市公司创新绩效有显著的正向影响。高管团队意识在政府补助与研发投入之间存在部分中介效应。研发投入在高管团队意识与创新绩效之间存在部分中介效用。同时政府补助对不同生命周期的新能源上市公司创新绩效调节作用有显著差异。     

Determining factors in the success of R&D cooperative agreements between firms and research organizations

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of a series of contextual and organizational factors on the success of 800 cooperative agreements between Spanish firms and research organizations, run between 1995 and 2000. Findings show that the most outstanding factors are, in the case of firms, commitment, previous links, definition of objectives and conflict, whereas for research organizations previous links, communication, commitment, trust and the partners’ reputation are more relevant. These study not only provides a comprehensive theoretical model to analyze the success of these agreements but is useful both for improving management of cooperation and for fostering collaboration both at a national an international level.     

跨国公司R&D国际化趋势及其对中国跨国公司的启示

随着世界经济全球化 ,跨国公司的 R &D活动出现了国际化趋势。在此 ,分析了跨国公司R&D国际化的必然性、新趋势 ,并提出如何使中国跨国公司 R&D活动国际化的建议。     

Can creative destruction be destroyed? Military IR&D and destruction along the value-added chain

We elaborate a supply chain innovation matrix that can be applied to both commercial and military supply chains. By shifting the analysis from a focal firm to industry structure, we argue that the market structure of the entire supply chain functions as a major moderating variable in determining both the timing and adoption of innovations, both for commercial and military markets. We extend work on supply chain resource dependency by drawing a distinction between market-structure-induced resource dependency and supplier over-reliance on a customer in a competitive market. This has policy implications for the organization of military industrial research and development (IR&D). Joint service research and development (Jointness) will certainly bring about innovation, but it will be incremental, reinforcing established military hierarchies. Policy makers may need to add this probable consequence when comparing Jointness and inter-service rivalry. The cost savings inherent in Jointness may unwittingly sustain a military force unready for fighting the next war.     

院校与政府共建型新型研发机构建设发展模式探索——以华中科技大学无锡研究院为例

从"政产学研"深度融合的视角,以华中科技大学无锡研究院为例,探索院校与政府共建型新型研发机构的建设发展模式——"技术立院",即通过弥补高校技术成果到产业化之间的断层,实现科研成果到产业支撑引领的转变,从而为其他新型研发机构的建设发展提供借鉴。     

新型研发机构参与主体的合作策略选择——演化博弈视角

在有限理性假设前提下,利用演化博弈模型探究了新型研发机构中各参与主体之间合作策略的选择问题。通过分析多元主体收益支付矩阵,求解复制动态方程和雅可比矩阵,得到模型局部均衡点,从而得出随着时间变化参与各方最终的策略选择,并通过数值模拟仿真验证博弈系统策略演化趋势,同时梳理了合作创新下新型研发机构策略选择的影响因素。在此基础上,文章从合作模式、企业需求和政策环境等角度,提出实现新型研发机构可持续发展的策略建议。     

Post-Soviet science: Difficulties in the transformation of the R&D systems in Russia and Ukraine

In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union was among the foremost leaders of world science, thanks in large part to its heavy involvement in military programmes. The USSR developed a large research infrastructure but it lacked effective mechanisms for the commercialization of research results. The main aim of the transformation of R&D systems in the post-Soviet states in the 1990s and early 2000s was the re-orientation of scientific activities away from military and towards civilian goals. Analysis of statistical data at the macro-level suggests that this attempt was not particularly successful. Indeed, most newly independent states could not even preserve a ‘critical mass’ of scientific activities in order to remain among the list of significant producers of research results. In the post-Soviet countries (and in this paper we focus on Russia and Ukraine as the largest states of the region), inputs from the R&D system have failed to generate wealth-creating outputs because of a systemic inability to use the resources for generating commercially viable results effectively. All post-Soviet countries, including Russia and Ukraine, urgently need not only a major transformation within the R&D system, but also important changes in the wider ‘environment’. It is important to stress that, in recent years, changes in R&D have been determined not only by the general economic situation itself but also by the general policy of the post-Soviet states. While Russia has expressed ambitions to regain its former influence as a great power and to use S&T to achieve this goal, Ukraine has no clearly determined objectives for the development of its national science system. However, both countries face certain common problems. The development of relevant institutes and the stimulation of demand for R&D results from the side of industry, broader involvement in the international division of scientific work, and the introduction of adequate legal protection for intellectual property rights are all of critical importance for S&T institutes and other research organizations in Russia and Ukraine. This paper shows that the reforms in the R&D sector have been relatively modest and rather unsystematic over the last one and a half decades. The key challenges, which relate to the inertia and the negative aspects of the previous period (for example, a extremely low level of replacement of aging manpower, largely outdated scientific equipment in research laboratories, and institutional mechanisms that are not relevant to the market economy), pose serious problems for the transformation of the R&D systems in both countries, despite new possibilities and a willingness to increase financial support for R&D.     

From closed to open: Job role changes,individual predispositions,and the adoption of commercial open source software development

When trying to attain the benefits of open source software (OSS), proprietary closed source software (PCSS) firms are struggling to adopt this radically different practice of software development. We approach these adoption challenges as a problem of gaining support for organizational innovation. Through a mixed-method research design consisting of qualitative interviews and a survey of employees of a large telecommunications firm, we find that the organizational innovation to commercially engage in OSS has different impacts on technical and administrative dimensions of different job roles. Accordingly, individuals enacting different job roles are—on average—more or less well aligned with the OSS practice and OSS processes per se. We find that individual-level attributes can counterbalance the job role changes that weaken support for adopting OSS, while perceived organizational commitment has no effect. Suggestions for PCSS firms are presented and implications for innovation literature are discussed.     

Developing science, technology and innovation indicators: What we can learn from the past

The science-technology-innovation system is one that is continuously and rapidly evolving. The dramatic growth over the last 20 years in the use of science, technology and innovation (STI) indicators appears first and foremost to be the result of a combination of, on the one hand, the ease of computerized access to an increasing number of measures of STI and, on the other hand, the interest in a growing number of public policy and private business circles in such indicators. Such growing interest might be expected in societies that increasingly use organised science and technology to achieve a wide variety of social and economic objectives and in which business competition is increasingly based on innovation. On the basis of 40 years of indicators work, we argue that frontiers and characteristics of STI indicators that were important last century may no longer be so relevant today and indeed may even be positively misleading.     

The impact of R&D spillovers on UK manufacturing TFP: A dynamic panel approach

One of the benefits claimed for investment in Research and Development (R&D) is that there is a spillover effect. Industries benefit from both their own R&D efforts as well as the efforts of other national and overseas industries. The present research presents new evidence on the long-term impact of R&D investment upon UK industry's productivity performance and on the nature of these “R&D spillovers”. The results suggest that R&D efforts from the industry itself and from other national industries have a positive impact on the industry's productivity but, interestingly, there is no gain from foreign R&D investment.