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.     

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.     

民营上市公司政治关系对研发活动的影响研究

本文利用2005-2009年599家我国民营上市公司的数据分析了政治关系对企业研发活动的影响。实证研究显示:我国民营企业的政治关系有助于研发活动,而且不同地域的企业政治关系对研发活动的影响不同,这一结果表明转型经济体中企业的政治关系会显著影响企业经营活动,即政治关系与市场机制互为补充。     

Research activity,output growth and productivity increase in Japanese manufacturing industries

The contribution of R & D expenditures to the productivity increase in Japanese manufacturing industries is investigated. With a popular single-equation approach, this contribution was found to be not only significant in all of the three periods, (1960–1966, 1966–1973 and 1973–1977), but also to exceed that estimated for the United States. However, when a simulataneous-equations approach was used to allow for an interaction between the learning effect (output growth enhancing productivity increase through the accumulation of experience) and the price effect (productivity increase stimulating output growth through a declining price), the results suggested not only the importance of these two effects but also the over-evaluation of the contribution of R & D in the usual ordinary least-squares estimation.     

政策迎合能否兼顾高质量发展? ———制造业企业的研发操纵与生产率

制造业企业通过研发操纵迎合政策门槛值，可以获取税收减免等政策性优惠，但刻意的研发操纵行为却不一定带来企业生产率水平的提高。本文基于2008~2018年ACF法测算的微观企业生产率数据及B-样条基函数展开的非参数分位数模型，更加真实地捕获研发操纵对企业生产率的非线性异质影响，结果发现：（1）研发操纵对企业生产率存在非线性影响，随着研发操纵不断增加，会抑制企业生产率。（2）研发操纵在不同分位点存在显著异质效应，在低分位点处对研发操纵敏感程度更高，即企业生产率水平越低，研发操纵所带来的负面影响越显著。（3）非国有企业更有动机进行研发操纵，且对生产率负面影响更显著。此外，研发操纵对不同地区或技术类型企业生产率影响不同，其中对高技术类型、中西部地区负面影响更显著。（4）研发操纵对企业生产率影响存在显著的滞后效应。中国企业不应盲目研发操纵，应与自身生产率密切结合，为适度研发操纵提升企业生产率目标提供决策依据。     

石油石化上市公司研发投入对成长性影响研究

以中国沪深两市112家石油石化上市公司2012-2016年数据为样本,就企业研发投入对公司成长性的影响进行实证研究。研究结果表明：研发资金投入对石油石化上市公司成长性存在显著性的正向影响,其正向影响存在滞后性,滞后期为三年且影响程度在滞后二期达到最大值;研发人员投入对石油石化上市公司成长性存在正向影响,但不显著;公司规模和资本结构等亦对公司成长性存在显著影响。基于研究结论,提出创造良好的创新环境、强化研发管理、增加长期持续性研发投入和完善创新人才体系等建议。     

Determinants of R&D cooperation in Japanese start-ups

This paper explores the determinants of R&D cooperation in Japanese start-ups. Using a sample from an original survey conducted in 2008, we examine the effects of founder-, firm-, and industry-specific characteristics on R&D cooperation by type of partners. Our findings indicate that founder-specific characteristics such as educational background, prior innovation output, and affiliation to academic associations are fairly important in determining R&D cooperation with academic institutes (universities and public research institutes). We also provide evidence that founders’ prior innovation output and work experience have positive and significant effects on R&D cooperation with business partners. With respect to firm-specific characteristics, it is found that firms investing more in R&D tend to engage in R&D cooperation, regardless of the type of partners. Furthermore, it is found that independent firms are less likely to cooperate in R&D with academic institutes than subsidiaries and affiliated firms.     

Modelling the joint impact of R&D and ICT on productivity: A frontier analysis approach

This study explores the channels through which technological investments affect productivity performance of industrialized economies. Using a Stochastic Frontier Model (SFM) we estimate the productivity effects of R&D and ICT for a large sample of OECD industries between 1973 and 2007, identifying four channels of transmission: input accumulation, technological change, technical efficiency and spillovers. Our results show that ICT has been particularly effective in reducing production inefficiency and in generating inter-industry spillovers, while R&D has raised the rate of technical change and favoured knowledge spillovers within sectors. We also quantify the contribution of technological investments to output and total factor productivity growth documenting that R&D and ICT accounted for almost 95% of productivity growth in the OECD area.     

Specialisation precedes diversification: R&D productivity effects

We model how R&D enters the innovation system in four ways (intramural, extramural, cooperative, and spillover). Despite measuring three different spillovers together, for a very large sample of European enterprises we conclude that the productivity effects of spillovers were at best smaller than intramural R&D productivity effects. We also find that building on the greater skills and experience of enterprises already undertaking R&D (intensity) raised labour productivity more than providing support for those beginning R&D (extensity). Optimal extramural R&D intensity was higher than the actual level; sample firms could boost productivity either by abandoning extramural R&D or by doing much more. There were substantial differences in our sample between enterprises and countries in terms of R&D spillovers. Greater multinational corporation incidence in new EU members accounted for these countries' high direct R&D intensity productivity, regardless of their generally low overall labour productivity. Absorptive capacity made little difference to the utilisation of spillovers.     

The differential impact of privately and publicly funded R&D on R&D investment and innovation: the Italian case

This paper explores the impact of a specific R&D policy instrument, the Italian Fondo per le Agevolazioni della Ricerca (FAR), on industrial R&D and technological output at the firm level. Our objective is threefold: first, to identify the presence or absence of private R&D investment additionality/crowding-out within a pooled sample and in various firm subsets (identified by region, size, level of technology, and other features), while also taking into account the effect of single policy instruments or mixes of them. Secondly, to analyse the output (innovation) additionality by comparing the differential impact of privately funded R&D and publicly funded R&D expenditure on applications for patents filed by firms. Thirdly, the paper will compare the structural characteristics of firms showing additionality with those of firms showing crowding-out, in order to determine the firm characteristics associated with successful policy interventions. Our results suggest that FAR is effective in the pooled sample, although no effect emerges in some firm subsets. In particular, while large firms seem to have been decisive for the success of this policy, small firms present a more marked crowding-out effect. Furthermore, the firms’ growth strategies and ability to transform R&D input into innovation output (patents) seem to have a positive effect in terms of additionality.     

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.     

The impact of patent protection and financial development on industrial R&D

Stronger protection of patent rights is thought to spur innovation through securing returns to R&D investments. Those investments must be financed, however, suggesting that the responsiveness of R&D to patent reforms varies with financial development levels. We examine the joint impact of domestic and international financial-market development and patent protection on R&D intensities in 22 manufacturing industries in 20 OECD countries for the period 1990-2009. We show that stronger patent rights increase R&D intensities in patent-intensive industries, accounting for the need for external financing and the amount of tangible assets. The primary impact varies across types of financial development: patent protection raises R&D in high-patent industries where countries have more limited equity and credit markets. In contrast, in countries with more developed bond markets industry R&D is more sensitive to patent rights. Interestingly, patent rights in countries that are more exposed to foreign direct investment increase R&D intensities at all levels of financial development.     

The interaction between public and private R&D expenditure and national productivity

Starting from the epistemological position of the positive interaction between public and private R&D expenditures at country level for maintaining productivity growth, the purpose of this paper is to provide empiricist–positivist arguments of this stance in order to design R&D policy that supports national competitiveness in fast-changing and turbulent markets     

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.     

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.     

日本企业的R＆D模式与科技创新研究

日本科技创新的特点之一是：民间企业强、政府弱。战后以来,日本掀起了4次科技创新热潮。企业形成了4级研究开发体系,即中央研究机构、基础研究机构、技术本部以及海外R＆D机构。随着4级研发体系的建立和健全,企业的R＆D体制不断增强,蓄积了强大的研发功能,特别是大型企业,像丰田、松下、日立等的R＆D机构,其研发资金、设备、研究人员的水平,在国际上堪称前沿。     

经济周期对我国研发强度的非对称影响

构造研发强度周期性反应函数,以中国30个省市1998-2011年的数据为研究对象,分析经济周期各阶段对研发强度的非对称影响。研究结果表明,我国研发强度逆周期变化,经济周期各阶段对研发强度有显著非对称影响,经济扩张对研发强度的负向影响力度大于经济紧缩对研发强度的正向影响力度,在长期中,持续的经济波动对我国研发强度有负效应,分区域看,这种负效应在西部区域更强。因此,我国应针对不同经济周期阶段在各区域合理定位科技政策。     

制造业集聚对创新生产率的影响及区域比较

基于2003-2015年我国省级制造业面板数据,采用两阶段最小二乘法,本文分析了制造业集聚对创新生产率的影响,并进行了区域比较。理论分析表明,制造业集聚主要通过创新投入不断减少和创新产出有效增加,从而推动技术进步或技术效率的提高等作用机制来促进创新生产率提升。实证结果显示,(1)制造业集聚能够有效促进其创新生产率提升,并且技术效率的改善而非技术进步是制造业集聚促进创新生产率提升的主要途径;(2)分区域比较来看,制造业集聚对创新生产率及其分解指标的影响作用在东、中、西部区域之间存在明显的差异。其中,东中西部区域制造业集聚均有利于显著促进其创新生产率提升和技术效率改善,但作用程度之间存在一定的差异,且对技术进步的影响系数虽为正,却不显著;(3)无论是替换核心解释变量,还是分时间段进行回归估计,抑或对制造业集聚对创新生产率影响的作用途径进行检验,上述结果均成立。基于上述研究结论,本文提出了推进我国制造业创新生产率提升的相关政策建议。     

Overseas R&D, knowledge sourcing, and patenting: an empirical study of Japanese R&D investment in the US

This paper purports to study the contribution of R&D at home and abroad to the firm’s inventive activity, using a sample of 137 Japanese multinationals. The empirical analysis relates the number of inventions in Japan and that in the US, as measured by the number of patents issued by the USPTO, to the parent’s R&D, the US subsidiaries’ R&D, the presence of R&D in Europe, the firm’s experience in the US, entry mode, and industry dummies. In addition, to study the subsidiary’s role in sourcing local technological knowledge, we construct indices of local technological strength of the state in which the subsidiary is located. The results, most importantly, indicate that these indices positively contribute to inventions at home and in the US among Type R firms, whose R&D subsidiaries mainly aim to research, suggesting that knowledge sourcing is an important function of these subsidiaries and locational choice is important for this purpose. These results do not hold among Type S firms, whose R&D subsidiaries mainly aim to support local manufacturing and sales activities.     

Effects of R&D and networking on the export decision of Japanese firms

This paper examines how internal R&D intensity and external networking channels are related with the firm's export decision, based on a large firm-level data set covering all manufacturing industries in Japan without any firm-size threshold. Internal R&D is not the only determinant of exporting, while it is strongly related with exports in the science-based sector. Collaborations with other firms on joint projects and operations of subsidiaries overseas are significantly linked to exports of large-sized firms, while affiliations with business associations and R&D intensity are critical for small-sized firms to export. Connections with computer networks have a weaker impact.