Crisi e innovazione: il ruolo delle strategie per il finanziamento della R&S

The study analyses the response of companies to the recent economic crisis in terms of innovation spending. In particular, we suggest that the reactions to the economic downturn may differ between firms, also depending on firm-specific attributes such as R&D and financial strategy. Specifically, the choice of firms on how to finance R&D and whether to outsource R&D activities are considered to be important "moderating" factors of the impact of the crisis on enterprise innovation, and, ultimately, of the decision to reduce innovation efforts during 2009. Our empirical analysis is based on a sample of 4,797 firms located in Italy, Germany and France. Empirical results highlight interesting country specificities and show that the link between the R&D input mix and the reaction to the crisis can be detected throughout the whole sample, while only in the Italian case does a clear relation between financial and R&D strategy emerge.