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Copyright of Managerial & Decision Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study investigates whether discretion in reporting pension expenses mitigates research and development (R&D) manipulation. Using a sample of Japanese manufacturing firms during the fiscal years 2001-2011 where both pension costs and R&D expenditures have large impacts on the bottom-line earnings, I find that higher discount rates are associated with higher R&D investment among firms in which pension expenses could have large impacts on reported earnings. I also find that this relationship is found only among firms in high-tech industries. These results suggest that pension accrual management substitutes costly R&D manipulation that may hurt future competitive edge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We apply meta-regression techniques to provide a quantitative review of the empirical literature on how research and development (R&D) expenses affect the effective tax rate (ETR). R&D expenses relate to a well-accepted profit shifting channel, strategic placement of intellectual property within a multinational entity. Using a unique hand-collected data set, we add a new perspective to the current base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) state of research and debate, in three ways: First, observing that primary studies report mixed evidence on how R&D expenses affect ETR, we provide a consensus estimate for this effect. Second, we consider this effect in more detail by separating a tax accounting effect and a profit shifting effect, which to our knowledge has not yet been investigated. We detect that one-third of the R&D effect on the ETR is due to the tax accounting effect and could be mitigated via book-tax conformity. We further find that 10% of the profit shifting effect can be traced back to R&D tax credits. Third, our meta-regression reveals factors that are possible sources of variation and bias in previous empirical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines whether corporate governance and product market competition interact to affect the profitability of corporate research and development (R&D) investments. Firms announcing R&D spending changes experience positive and significant wealth effects, and these effects are mainly driven by good-governance firms. Investors appear to view announcements of R&D spending changes undertaken by firms with stronger shareholder rights as evidence of value creation. Moreover, the favorable wealth effects are stronger for good-governance firms in noncompetitive industries than in competitive industries, supporting the argument that good governance substitutes for product market competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article estimates a dynamic structural model of discrete Research and Development (R&D) investment and quantifies its cost and long-run benefit for German manufacturing firms. The model incorporates linkages between R&D choice, product and process innovations, and future productivity and profits. The long-run payoff to R&D is the proportional difference in expected firm value generated by the investment. It increases firm value by 6.7% for the median firm in high-tech industries but only 2.8% in low-tech industries. Simulations show that reductions in maintenance costs of innovation significantly raise investment rates and productivity, whereas reductions in startup costs have little effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper empirically analyzes how a public institution chooses the cofinancing rate in funding competitive applied agricultural research projects. The public funding institution observes some objective features of the selected projects and of the proponents. The paper puts forward some testable hypotheses about how the funding institution uses this available information to decide the cofinancing rate. An empirical model is then specified and estimated to test these hypotheses. The empirical application refers to the real case of the agricultural R& D program funded by an Italian region ( Emilia- Romagna) over years 2001-2006. Results suggest that the cofinancing rate actually responds to the observed features but this response does not always follow the formulated hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms increasingly pursue technology licensing for appropriating economic returns from their R&D investments. Despite this tendency, extracting revenues from licensing remains a challenge for most firms. This article explores the role of task-specific experience and of workforce skills as determinants of superior licensing volume. The rationale is that these factors contribute to the development of a desorptive capacity that allows companies to overcome the complexities posed by technology licensing. Using panel data of Spanish manufacturing firms, we find that prior experience in licensing positively affects licensing revenues at a decreasing rate. These learning-by-doing effects are strengthened when firms have a higher proportion of their workforce endowed with advanced skills, whereas they are reduced when firms have a higher proportion of low-skilled employees. These results contribute to licensing and open innovation research by partly specifying the nature and anatomy of desorptive capacity and by highlighting the key role of intellectual human capital in licensing, whose contribution depends on the skills level. They also inform managers on the mechanisms that can enhance their firms' licensing volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public sectors are under increasing pressure to provide better services and improve their efficiency in order to boost economic growth and social welfare. The promotion of R&D and innovation has proved to be a key determinant of economic performance of countries. However, little is known about the effect of publicly funded R&D activities on the performance and efficiency of public sectors. A better understanding behind such relationship is crucial, particularly in present times of public budget constraints. Accordingly, the article measures the public sector performance and efficiency of European countries by the construction of composite indicators. Moreover, it explores and tests the role of publicly funded R&D on public sector performance (using multivariate techniques and econometric analyses) and efficiency (by means of a non- parametric approach). Results indicate that publicly funded R&D should be considered a dimension of public sector performance, particularly when complementarities between private and public R&D emerge, but that it also plays a role on its efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the relationship between R&D investments and loan spread. Prior research documents that R&D is associated with greater future benefits and risks, suggesting that the valuation of R&D depends on a tradeoff between the two. Some research finds that bondholders consider that the benefits of R&D outweigh its risks: R&D is negatively associated with bond yields. This is surprising given that debt holders are more concerned about downside risk due to asymmetric payoffs. Using data on private debt from the US, we find an overall positive association between loan spread and R&D intensity, suggesting that the riskiness of R&D appears to outweigh its benefits for private lenders. Furthermore, an asymmetric payoff structure implies that the risks of R&D for lenders increase with default risk. Consistent with this argument, we find a positive association between R&D and loan spread for firms that are smaller, with high default-risk ratings, unrated (no public debt), or in industries with weaker legal protection. Unrated firms are in the most R&D-intensive group and make up nearly 60% of the firms with private debt. Consequently, studies that exclude unrated firms are likely to present an incomplete picture of the perspective of debt holders on R&D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen growing interest in the influence of the environment on entrepreneurship. However, little is known about the impact of the country-level technological environment on the creation of new technology-based firms. This study investigates the relationship between the technological environment (measured by the amount of investment in R&D, and access to information and communication technology [ICT] infrastructure) and technology entrepreneurship, in 54 countries during the years 2005 to 2010. Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, and the World Bank Development Indicators, we identify a significant, robust inverted U-shaped relationship between R&D investment at country level and the likelihood of technology entrepreneurship. We also find evidence of a positive relationship between access to ICT infrastructure and the likelihood of technology entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work is to investigate the university level determinants of academic spin-off ( ASO) firm creation in Italy. We are interested in particular in the relationship between university funding and the university propensity to create spin-offs, and test the effect of public and third-party funds on this tendency. We estimate the effect of several variables for the characteristics of the university and the context. In contrast to our expectations, results indicate that third-party funding does not exert an effect on the propensity of the university to generate ASO firms. Similarly, and in contrast to what the literature suggests, scientific productivity, context innovativeness and patenting experience also do not have a positive and significant effect on the propensity to generate spin-offs. We find that ASO creation is influenced by the amount of public income, by past experience in creating spin-offs and by the presence of a technology transfer office. This work contributes to our understanding of the differences between Italy and the Anglo- Saxon countries in relation to the phenomenon of ASO creation and has some important implications for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the question of how country-level governance characteristics moderate the market valuation of research and development ( R& D). Using a valuation model and panel data from companies in the European Union, United States, and Japan, we find that effective corporate governance allows the market to better assess a firm's R& D investments. This finding is the conjunction with the effect of the legal system, the financial system, and mechanisms of control. First, as effectiveness of investor protection increases, the market valuation of R& D projects also increases. Second, more developed financial systems do a better job assessing R& D. Third, effective control mechanisms reinforce the positive effect of R& D on a firm's market value. In sum, our findings shed light on how policymakers can increase the benefits from firms' R& D spending and thus foster economic growth and social welfare using these country-level governance characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestically funded (and performed) research and development (R&D) has historically been a major source of productivity gains in U.S. agriculture, and a principal source of R&D spillovers to the rest of the world. In the waning decades of the 20th century, U.S. policymakers opted to ratchet down the rate of growth in public support for food and agricultural R&D. As the 21st century unfolds, slowing growth has given way to real cutbacks, reversing the accumulation of U.S.-sourced public R&D capital over most of the previous century and more. The 2014 Farm Bill did little to reverse these long-run research funding trajectories-politicians failed to heed the economic evidence about the still substantial social payoffs of that research and the consequent slowdown in U.S. agricultural productivity growth associated with the spending slowdown. Meanwhile, R&D spending by other countries has been moving in different directions. We present new evidence that today's middle-income countries-notably China, Brazil, and India- are not only growing in relative importance as producers of agricultural innovations through investments in public R&D, they are also gaining considerable ground in terms of their share of privately performed research of relevance for agriculture. The already substantive changes in global public and private R&D investment trajectories are accelerating. If history is any guide to the future, these changing R&D trajectories could have profound consequences for the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture in the decades ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using firm-level data on Spanish manufacturing firms we estimate a model of the firm's optimal R&D decisions (whether to perform R&D and how much to invest). We quantify the fixed (proper fixed costs plus firms' outside option) and sunk costs of R&D and find the former to be substantially higher than the latter. While sunk costs act as a barrier to entry into R&D for some firms, fixed costs are the binding obstacle for many more firms. Simulation based on the estimated model reveals that one-shot trigger subsidies cause a substantial increase in both the share of R&D firms and average R&D expenditures. This effect shows persistence over time, but totally fades away after seven years as firms are gradually hit by negative R&D profitability shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the interfaces of marketing, research and development ( R& D), and manufacturing in product development have been extensively studied, no large-scale empirical study has focused on finance's role in the product development team. The present research investigates the role of finance in cross-functional product development teams, thereby extending existing research on cross-functional integration in product development. A set of hypotheses is tested with a survey of 389 project team leaders and top management team members from companies in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and Austria. The findings suggest that the integration of finance in cross-functional teams positively impacts project performance and that the importance of the finance interface depends on the project development stage and the innovativeness of the product developed. The results indicate that the R& D-finance interface is most critical at the early stage of a project, while the marketing-finance interface is most important at the late stage, and that the integration between R& D and finance is especially useful in the development of less innovative products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT A database of over 2,700 agri-food businesses in the region of Valencia, Spain was used to test the influence of internal characteristics of the firm and of external characteristics linked to local systems on the willingness to participate in R&D activities promoted by knowledge supporting institutions. A Probit model was estimated, correcting possible intragroup correlations when group variables are combined with individual data. Results show that R&D activities are enhanced in medium and large firms, co-ops, experienced firms and better physical access to technological centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, private R&D spending in the United States and other developed countries has been growing faster than gross domestic product. At the same time, the growth rates of per-capita and aggregate output have been rather stable, possibly declining slightly. This article proposes a growth model that can account for the observed phenomenon by explicitly describing competition among technological leaders and followers in individual markets in a way that is consistent with existing studies on firms' motivation to invest in R&D. The model shows the possibility that the unsustainable trend of rising R&D intensity persists for a very long time. ( JEL O3, O4, L1) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the issuance of more than 40 key special projects by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology within the national research and development program for 2017. The projects include exploitation and exploration of deep-seated resources, efficient and clean use of coal, and efficient utilization and development of water resources.

Innovation and new model development have been paramount in the U. S. automotive industry. The industry has invested around $16-18 billion annually to launch new models and improve existing ones in response to incessant evolution of consumer preferences, competitive pressures, and changes in safety and emission regulations. Although these investments have significantly reduced cycle time and increased efficiency (e.g., through platform communization), it still costs around $1 billion to develop and launch a new model from scratch. Therefore, the strategic focus in the U. S. automotive industry is rapidly shifting away from manufacturing efficiency to product development and innovation as firms engage in an 'arms race' to develop innovative new products ahead of the competition. The outcome of this new focus manifests itself in the total development time for a new platform vehicle, which is expected to drop from roughly four years in 1998 to two years in 2014. As development cycles continue to shorten, competition in the industry intensifies, and a new insight is needed to better understand how increased competition can affect the gains from innovations. The need for research to fill this gap is especially critical as executives continue to grow more cynical about returns offered by increases in research and development ( R& D) expenditures and see no statistically significant relationship between R& D expenditures and firm performance. This study attempts to address this gap by adopting a coevolutionary perspective that analyzes the relationship between innovations and firm performance by accounting for the impact of competitive forces in the industry. First, this study explicitly models competitive interactions between firms, known in the ecology literature as the Red Queen competition, in which gains from innovations are relative and impermanent. Second, hypotheses are tested using a comprehensive data set comprising all automobile manufacturers ever known to compete in the U. S. automobile market at any time between 1891 and 2000. Complete coverage of 110 years enables precise analysis of the link between innovations and firm performance as well as the coevolution in the U. S. automobile industry. The results suggest that although extensiveness of an innovation is relevant, a firm's ability to keep up with the competition in the innovation arms race is a more significant driver of survival in the market. Thus, firms cannot simply evaluate their innovation efforts in a silo but must constantly assess their efforts versus the innovation launches of their key competitors. Based on the findings, automotive manufacturers must develop a structured product development program that allows for continual and steady new product introductions; otherwise, even momentary setbacks can have a damaging impact on a firm's ability to survive in the automotive marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we provide an explanation for why upstream firms merge, highlighting the role of R&D investments and their nature, as well as the role of downstream competition. We show that an upstream merger generates two distinct efficiency gains when downstream competition is not too strong and R&D investments are sufficiently generic: The merger increases R&D investments and decreases wholesale prices. We also show that upstream firms merge unless R&D investments are too specific and downstream competition is neither too weak nor too strong. When the merger materializes, the merger-generated efficiencies pass on to consumers, and thus, consumers can be better off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the role of innovation in boosting the water industry in the U.S. It mentions the need for the industry to adopt new innovation models, as well as collaboration, to be able to enact improvements worldwide. It suggests that such goal can be achieved through increased investment for research and development (R&D), new means of thinking, and cross-discipline discussion.

The author discusses the issue related to the research and development (R&D) of a new drug in pharmaceutical industry involving the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). An overview of the new drug output that is small againts the total investment in R&D is provided. Also investigated is the decreasing productivity in the development of new molecular entities (NMEs).

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to develop our understanding of the somewhat diffuse nature of technological externalities and space by associating a geographical dimension with the sectoral dimension. Using a panel data set containing French patents as well as private and public research expenditures by industry and region over the period from 1992 to 2000, this paper estimates a knowledge production function. The region- and industry-specific nature of the sample data allows us to empirically examine spatial spillovers associated with public and private research expenditures in own- and other-industry sectors for our sample of 94 French regions. We find that the largest direct and indirect effects are associated with private R&D activity that spills across industry boundaries. However, since Jacobs externalities decrease more drastically with distance than MAR externalities, our results also point to different optimal strategies for regional versus national officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the directive issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to U.S. Federal agencies that fund their research and development with more than $100 million. She states that each agency was asked by the memorandum from Director John Holdren of OSTP to develop funded research plans by August 2013. She mentions that the derivative acknowledges publishers' value, seeks stakeholder input and encourages collaboration of public and private agencies.

The article discusses British science policy in the mid-1960s, with focus given to the themes of scientific research finance, the distribution of funds between different scientific fields, and the training of scientific researchers and technical support staff. The author notes the relatively small amount of public spending on science in Great Britain during this period and argues that this spending is largely wasted on the electronics industry and national defense. He distinguishes between funding for solid state physics, electronic physics, theoretical chemistry, and astronomy, and emphasizes the impact of scientific research on human life. Also discussed is the need for more technicians and improved status for engineers within intellectual circles.

The article reports on the increase in government budget for science and research in the U.S. Cited science and research-related agencies that get bigger increases in 2018 including the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Office of Science, and the National Science Foundation. The budget proposal for 2019 which include a $2.1-billion cut for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and reductions in the energy and climate change area is also cited.

The author discusses the biotechnology and life sciences industry in Europe. Topics discussed include Great Britain emerging as the most preferred destination for innovative projects due to rise in research and development investments, sell-offs in biotechnology stocks, and concerns of potential investors over high drug prices.

The article focuses on the 1.8 billion euros investment in research and development sector by the German chemical firm BASF SE as of 2014. Topics discussed include launch of more than 300 new products on the market in 2013 by the firm, use of nanotechnology as innovation driver in the chemical industry for development of construction materials, photovoltaics and medical applications such as encapsulation techniques and views of Andreas Kreimeyer, Research executive director at BASF.