IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v61y2008i8p868-876.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic returns to industrial research

Author

Listed:
  • Kafouros, Mario I.

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between R&D and corporate performance. The study extends previous research by examining the conditions under which firms benefit from R&D; by incorporating in the analysis the varying costs of R&D inputs; and by employing an opportunity-cost approach that estimates the monetary returns to R&D. The findings indicate that industrial research generates revenues that are significantly higher than the returns that other investments yield. The study also resolves previously conflicting results concerning firm size, and offers new insights on the role of technological opportunities that contradict past studies. Although the potential for innovation is greater in high-tech industries, intense R&D competition prevents technologically dynamic firms from enjoying high returns to R&D. By contrast, the results demonstrate that low-tech firms use R&D successfully as part of their strategies, implying that prior research underestimates the importance of R&D for these firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Kafouros, Mario I., 2008. "Economic returns to industrial research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(8), pages 868-876, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:61:y:2008:i:8:p:868-876
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148-2963(07)00271-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James D. Adams & Adam B. Jaffe, 1996. "Bounding the Effects of R&D: An Investigation Using Matched Establishment-Firm Data," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 27(4), pages 700-721, Winter.
    2. Rachel Griffith & Stephen Redding & John Van Reenen, 2004. "Mapping the Two Faces of R&D: Productivity Growth in a Panel of OECD Industries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(4), pages 883-895, November.
    3. Aghion, Philippe & Howitt, Peter, 1992. "A Model of Growth through Creative Destruction," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(2), pages 323-351, March.
    4. David J. TEECE, 2008. "Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy," World Scientific Book Chapters,in: The Transfer And Licensing Of Know-How And Intellectual Property Understanding the Multinational Enterprise in the Modern World, chapter 5, pages 67-87 World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Issues in Assessing the Contribution of Research and Development to Productivity Growth," NBER Chapters,in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 17-45 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Erik Brynjolfsson & Lorin M. Hitt, 2000. "Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Business Performance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 23-48, Fall.
    7. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Returns to Research and Development Expenditures in the Private Sector," NBER Chapters,in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 49-81 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Mairesse, Jacques, 1995. "Exploring the relationship between R&D and productivity in French manufacturing firms," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 263-293, January.
    9. Jiann-Chyuan Wang & Kuen-Hung Tsai, 2003. "Productivity Growth and R&D Expenditure in Taiwan's Manufacturing Firms," NBER Working Papers 9724, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. McGahan, Anita M. & Silverman, Brian S., 2006. "Profiting from technological innovation by others: The effect of competitor patenting on firm value," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 1222-1242, October.
    11. Ariel Pakes & Mark Schankerman, 1984. "The Rate of Obsolescence of Patents, Research Gestation Lags, and the Private Rate of Return to Research Resources," NBER Chapters,in: R&D, Patents, and Productivity, pages 73-88 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Masaaki Kotabe & Srini S Srinivasan & Preet S Aulakh, 2002. "Multinationality and Firm Performance: The Moderating Role of R&D and Marketing Capabilities," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(1), pages 79-97, March.
    13. Paul Stoneman & Otto Toivanen, 2001. "The Impact of Revised Recommended Accounting Practices on R&D Reporting by UK Firms," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 123-136.
    14. Richard R. Nelson, 1959. "The Simple Economics of Basic Scientific Research," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 67, pages 297-297.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Meyer, John & Subramaniam, Mohan, 2014. "Appropriating innovation's technical value: Examining the influence of exploration," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 2860-2866.
    2. repec:wsi:wschap:9781786343482_0001 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Selma Regina Martins Oliveira & Roberto Sbragia, 2015. "Modelling to assess the impact of technological innovation capacity in the performance of high complexity environments," International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain Modelling, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(1), pages 12-35.
    4. Pietro Moncada-Paternò-Castello & Peter Voigt, 2010. "Proceedings of CONCORD 2010: 2nd European Conference on Corporate R&D "An Engine for Growth, a Challenge for European Policy". Academic Forum - Summary Report," JRC Working Papers JRC60863, Joint Research Centre (Seville site).
    5. Moncada-Paternò-Castello, Pietro & Ciupagea, Constantin & Smith, Keith & Tübke, Alexander & Tubbs, Mike, 2010. "Does Europe perform too little corporate R&D? A comparison of EU and non-EU corporate R&D performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 523-536, May.
    6. Kafouros, Mario I. & Forsans, Nicolas, 2012. "The role of open innovation in emerging economies: Do companies profit from the scientific knowledge of others?," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 362-370.
    7. Wang, David Han-Min & Yu, Tiffany Hui-Kuang & Liu, Hong-Quan, 2013. "Heterogeneous effect of high-tech industrial R&D spending on economic growth," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1990-1993.
    8. Chowdhury, Reza H. & Maung, Min, 2012. "Financial market development and the effectiveness of R&D investment: Evidence from developed and emerging countries," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 258-272.
    9. Lo, Chu-Ping, 2016. "Intellectual property, research intensity, and scale effect," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 2297-2301.
    10. Wang, Chengqi & Kafouros, Mario I., 2009. "What factors determine innovation performance in emerging economies? Evidence from China," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 606-616, December.
    11. David Devins & George Lodorfos & Ioannis Kostopoulos & Don Webber, 2017. "Innovation And Growth In The City Region: Microeconomic Evidence Of Asymmetries," World Scientific Book Chapters,in: Promoting Innovation in New Ventures and Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises, chapter 1, pages 3-27 World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:61:y:2008:i:8:p:868-876. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Dana Niculescu). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.