RD Innovation Research Articles

The Relationship between Market Structure and Innovation in Industry Equilibrium: A Case Study of the Global Automobile Industry

We first estimate a dynamic game for the global automobile industry and then compute a Markov Perfect equilibrium to study the equilibrium relationship between market structure and innovation. The key state variable in the model is the efficiency level of each firm and the market structure is characterized by the vector of efficiency levels across all firms. Efficiency is estimated to be stochastically increasing in the dynamic control-innovation-which is proxied by patenting behavior. Equilibrium innovation is a function of all state variables in the industry and the cost of RD innovation is decreasing in the efficiency dispersion; innovation is more concentrated that efficiency; innovation is declining in the number of active firms; the innovation gap between the leader and other firms increases with competition.

What Types of Bondholders Impede Corporate Innovative Activities?

This study investigates whether institutional bond blockholders (i.e., bond funds that hold more than 5% of a firm's outstanding bonds) impede firm innovative activities, and if they do, through which channels. We find that long-term bond blockholders do not discourage firms from conducting innovative activities. Short-term bond blockholders, however, significantly reduce both firm investments in RD Innovation; Investment Horizon; Wall Street Walk

The dream lab

Increasingly, there is concern that the environment for conducting excellent research is deteriorating within the United States' large public research laboratories. This worry is being voiced both by the rank and file scientists within these institutions, as well as by leaders responsible for stewarding the US research infrastructure. The article describes a study which is limited to assessing the research environment, rather than measuring the outputs and outcomes of that environment, such as publications, citations and new products. Nine focus groups were held, each consisting of approximately ten scientists and RD innovation and cross fertilization of ideas; management and internal processes; setting and achieving relevant goals.

Management perceptions of government incentives to technological innovation in england, Trance, West Germany and Japan

This paper reports on four studies (in France, Germany (FRG), Japan, and United Kingdom) exploring reactions of industrial managers to government incentives (GIs), laws, policies, regulations, and other interventions intended to stimulate technological innovation. Propositions supported by the results are: (1) there are significant differences among industrial managers in different countries in their attitudes toward government actions relevant to the RD/I process; (2) Government actions to stimulate innovation are not perceived as salient to industrial RD/I (R&D/Innovation) decision making; and (3) Government actions in general are perceived to delay introduction of innovations into the market. German and Japanese firms seemed most aware of, and favorably disposed toward, GIs. Low technology firms in the UK were more supportive of GIs than high technology firms. The opposite was the case in Japan and France, while little overall difference existed among firms in Germany. One must exercise care, however, in drawing inferences from such international comparisons; countries differ in the nature, scope, and administration of programs, as well as the effect of cultural characteristics. Managers in all countries were unanimous that general government policies (economic and otherwise) and general market and competitive conditions have a more significant impact on firm RD/I decision making than the specific incentive programs. Incentive programs were, with some exceptions, considered orders of magnitude too small to be of significance. The burden of administering procedurally complex and inflexible incentive programs and dealing with cumbersome government bureaucracy were considered significant detriments. General infrastructural elements such as the educational system, social recognition and support, and government standards-setting were considered more important than direct incentives.

Field Studies of Barriers to R&D/Innovation in Industry.

The objective of this study was to explore the incidence and perceived importance of organizational, technical, environmental, and other factors which significantly affect the R&D/Innovation (RD/I) process in industrial firms. A series of field studies in seven firms was conducted over a period of three to eight months each. The sample firms and the sample projects (approximately 6-50 in each field site) covered a wide range of technologies and markets, including: electronics, primary materials, chemicals, machinery, and consumer products. The principal gross units of analysis were