Bottom-up estimation of industrial and public R&D investment by technology in support of policy-making: The case of selected low-carbon energy technologies

This paper discusses a bottom-up approach to estimate the level of R&D investment by technology in areas where data are scarce. It develops a four-step methodology for the estimation of corporate R&D investments at technology level. This approach can overcome gaps in existing data by combining publicly available information in a novel way, even though it introduces some uncertainty. This is illustrated for a set of low-carbon energy technologies that were identified as key for meeting Europe's long-term energy and climate objectives by the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan. The paper finds that the aggregated R&D investments dedicated to these technologies amounted to €3.3 billion in the EU in 2007, including public funding from European Union Member States and at EU-level, and industrial research activities from companies with headquarters registered in the EU. The results allow conclusions on the European energy research policy to be drawn, such as the dominance of industrial funds, and have provided significant input to the European policy making in this field. The paper ends with suggestions on how to further enhance the accuracy of the approach and how to widen its application to other sectors.     

Foreign direct investment in industrial research and development: A study of German MNCs

This paper reports on the international research and development (R&D) investments of German multinational corporations (MNCs). Based on a detailed empirical survey of laboratory sites established by 49 German MNCs, we examine (i) the level and pace of R&D internationalization, (ii) the motivations and mandates of overseas R&D laboratories, as well as (iii) the strength of the laboratories’ internal and external ties. Participating firms account for about 46% of all German enterprises with international R&D activities and approximately 66% of the nation's privately funded R&D expenditures in 1999. The findings indicate that the timing and organization of German owned overseas R&D investments more closely resemble Japanese or French than US or Swedish firms. Furthermore, in line with prior studies, German MNCs increasingly invest in international R&D for resource as opposed to market-seeking motives. The paper also finds significant differences with regard to the laboratory's mission and its geographical location on one hand, and its internal and external embeddedness, on the other.     

Is Italian science declining?

The paper analyses the Italian contribution to the world scientific production, its relative citation impact, its international collaborations and scientific productivity compared with the most productive EU countries over the period 1980–2009. It shows that despite the fact that the level of funding has been dramatically low during the past decades, Italian science has been able to increase its performance up to 2007. Italian science is a “cathedral in the desert”. However, a recent reduction in the level of scientific production, the lagging behind in international scientific collaboration (highly correlated with the relative citation impact) and the great heterogeneity of researchers’ productivity (absence of correlation of number of researchers with quality and quantity of scientific production) may mark the start of a decline of Italian science. The paper concludes that the increased funding must go hand-in-hand with reform of autonomy and governance and calling for a sound system of internal quality control and performance enhancement.     

Technological similarity,post-acquisition R&D reorganization,and innovation performance in horizontal acquisitions

This paper aims to disentangle the mechanisms through which technological similarity between acquiring and acquired firms influences innovation in horizontal acquisitions. We develop a theoretical model that links technological similarity to: (i) two key aspects of post-acquisition reorganization of acquired R&D operations – the rationalization of the R&D operations and the replacement of the R&D top manager, and (ii) two intermediate effects that are closely associated with the post-acquisition innovation performance of the combined firm – improvements in R&D productivity and disruptions in R&D personnel. We rely on PLS techniques to test our theoretical model using detailed information on 31 horizontal acquisitions in high- and medium-tech industries. Our results indicate that in horizontal acquisitions, technological similarity negatively affects post-acquisition innovation performance and that this negative effect is not mediated by the reorganization of the acquired R&D operations. However, replacing the acquired firm's R&D top manager leads to R&D productivity improvements that positively affect innovation performance.     

The challenge of greening technologies—Environmental policy integration in Finnish technology policies

The integration of environmental principles into other policies is perceived as essential in order to combat environmental problems as efficiently as possible. Environmental policy integration in Finnish technology policies is assessed empirically by focusing on technological R&D support at all levels, from policy strategies to project funding decisions. The actors making and implementing technology policies have grasped the idea of environmental protection and environmental issues have been identified especially at the strategy level and in some technology programmes. However, the integration is not overarching and no assessment of environmental impacts is required in funding applications.     

Australian Framework for the Commercialisation of University Scientific Research

Abstract

Australia spends proportionally more on university R&D, particularly when compared with business expenditure on R&D, than almost any other advanced economy, which suggests that creating the right environment to encourage the commercialisation of Australian university research results is vital if Australia is to obtain the best economic results from its investment. In this paper a meta‐analysis is used to review literature from various sources available on the broad environment in which university research commercialisation is conducted in Australia in order to identify the key components of the environment and where change may encourage or promote better commercialisation outcomes.     

Creating advantage in peripheral regions: The role of publicly funded R&D centres

Regional investment in R&D, technological development and innovation is perceived as being strongly associated with productivity, growth and sustained international competitiveness. One policy instrument by which policy makers have attempted to create regional advantage has been the establishment of publicly funded research centres (PRCs). In this paper we develop a logic model for this type of regional intervention and examine the outputs and longer-term outcomes from a group of (18) publicly funded R&D centres. Our results suggest some positive regional impacts but also identify significant differences in terms of innovation, additionality and sustainability between university-based and company-based PRCs. University-based PRCs have higher levels of short-term additionality, demonstrate higher levels of organisational innovation but prove less sustainable. Company-based PRCs demonstrate more partial additionality in the short-term but ultimately prove more sustainable.     

Regulatory policy, value of knowledge assets and innovation strategy: The case of the Orphan Drug Act

The U.S. Orphan Drug Act provides R&D incentives to drug-makers that go beyond statutory patent protection. The study explores the act's effect on financial returns to innovation and on the strategy of orphan drug development. Results indicate that the financial return to orphan drug development is positive. The findings suggest that when market size is small and cumulative innovation is an important phenomenon the policy that extends effective patent duration or subsidizes R&D activity improves incentives to innovate.     

Co-operative R&D: why and with whom?: An integrated framework of analysis

Firms use R&D partnerships to access knowledge and build global R&D networks. This article develops an integrated framework to examine the determinants of the choice of partners with which firms co-operate on R&D. This resource-based perspective underscores the interactions between three major questions: why co-operate, who does and with whom? It argues in particular that the choice of partners is dictated by the complementary resources which the latter command. The framework is then expanded to predict the relative efficiency of R&D co-operation with different partners, including suppliers, clients, rivals, academic institutions and foreign firms. The empirical analysis, which is based on responses to France’s version of the second European community innovation survey (CIS-2), strongly supports the overall framework of analysis.     

Taiwanese IT firms’ offshore R&D in China and the connection with the global innovation network

Although it is evident that technology is becoming increasingly globalized, resulting in the expansion of R&D internationalization by firms, despite this discernible trend, the substantial body of literature in this area is based mainly on the experience of the developed country. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of this issue by examining the R&D internationalization of a newly-industrializing country, Taiwan being a prime example, and its connection with the global production network. We begin with an examination of the literature on R&D internationalization and globalization, based upon which we propose a conceptual framework adapted from Dunning’s eclectic paradigm. In doing so, we set out to develop arguments based not only on the reasons why cross-strait R&D internationalization may be undertaken by Taiwanese information technology (IT) firms, but also the likely patterns of their R&D portfolios across the strait. Drawing on an original questionnaire survey and firm-level interviews, the paper presents and discusses empirical data on the cross-strait R&D deployment of Taiwanese IT firms. It then goes a stage further, using the ‘smiling curve’, to put forward a ‘holistic’ view of the cross-border innovation network in the IT hardware industry, in order to determine what cross-strait R&D internationalization means to the global production network.     

Reducing the demand uncertainties at the fuzzy-front-end of developing new online services

Addressing the demand uncertainties at the fuzzy-front-end of developing new online services, this paper tests the roles of numerous cluster-based methodologies in improving the predictive accuracy of consumer opinions. The results with an online service revealed that both crisp and non-crisp clustering methodologies improve the predictive accuracy and hence reduce the demand uncertainties at the fuzzy-front-end of the new product development process. They also showed that non-crisp clustering increases the accuracy more than does crisp clustering. Implications of the findings for our understanding of the earlier stages of the new product development process and for making informed R&D policies are discussed.     

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.     

全球研发网络与海外离岸创新中心建设模式研究

全球研发网络具有路径依赖效应,创新资源在网络内部自由流动产生乘数效应、循环效应、规模效应和输出效应。加快融入全球研发网络,可以从建设海外离岸创新中心着手。借鉴北京中关村、深圳市、上海张江、武汉东湖等海外离岸创新中心建设模式,提出粤港澳大湾区建设海外离岸创新中心的对策建议。     

政府研发资助、企业研发投入与中国创新效率

本文采用2003-2012年中国地区面板数据,利用超越对数的随机前沿模型和门限回归模型就政府研发资助和企业研发投入对中国创新效率的影响及政府研发资助和企业研发投入的最优强度区间进行分析。研究发现:目前在我国创新过程中,政府研发资助对创新效率的影响为负,存在一定的\"政府失灵\",企业研发投入能够促进创新效率的提高,\"市场失灵\"现象较少出现;政府研发资助强度的最优区间为0.282以上,企业研发投入强度的最优区间为0.688-0.775。     

MNCs’ offshore R&D networks in host country's regional innovation system: The case of Taiwan-based firms in China

China has become a hot spot of R&D internationalization and a growing number of Taiwan-based firms have indeed set up R&D units in China. Taking into account China's substantial regional variations in economic development, innovation capacity, and knowledge productivity, such notions as regional innovation system (RIS) and local innovative milieu may become more relevant to the study on relationships between China and its inward R&D internationalization. Therefore, the key issue for this paper is what locational advantages of an RIS within a host country affect the network linkages and networking strategy of multinational corporations’ (MNCs’) offshore R&D units. The paper aims to enrich the current understanding of R&D internationalization in several ways. First, the paper attempts to examine the R&D networking underlying R&D internationalization by Taiwan-based firms in China, with particular reference to the sub-national level inside China. Second, the paper tries to establish a link between the literature of R&D internationalization and that of RIS, with a modified version of Dunning's eclectic paradigm. Efforts are made to map the relationship between foreign subsidiaries’ local R&D networks and their host RISs inside China. Third, the paper takes advantage of a government databank to adopt a quantitative approach, the Seemingly Unrelated Bivariate Probit Regression model, with foreign subsidiaries as the unit of analysis, to highlight the role played by some aspects of the RIS in determining the local R&D networking of Taiwanese subsidiaries in China. Our evident shows that MNCs’ offshore R&D units that purse home-based technology exploitation strategy, the mainstream strategy regarding the developing host country, tend to be located in a host region with a strong knowledge application and exploitation subsystem, while an RIS with a strong knowledge generation and diffusion subsystem, within such a developing country as China, may induce MNCs’ local R&D units to pursue home-base technology augmenting strategy. On balance, not only the location choice but also the local R&D linkages of MNCs’ offshore subsidiaries are related to appropriate fits between the RIS and the subsidiaries’ innovation network inside the host country.