Publications
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PDF The 2017 EU Survey on Industrial R&D Investment Trends
The EU R&D Survey is a yearly survey amongst the top 1000 EU-based R&D investing companies from the R&D Scoreboard.… Show more The 151 participating companies in this report declared a total R&D investment from their own resources of €53.9 billion in 2016, or more than one-quarter of the total R&D investment by the 1000 companies of the 2016 EU Scoreboard. The companies that participated in the EU Survey on Industrial R&D Investment Trends expect R&D investment to increase by an average of 4.7% in the two years 2017 and 2018, with the highest growth expectations in the ‘Automobile and Other Transport' and ‘Health' sectors groups. Last year's expected growth was 1.4%. This year's expectations are the highest since 2007. If we compare only those companies that participated in the last three editions of the survey, the growth trend remains clear, with considerably higher growth expected in this year's edition (around 4.0%) than in the last two editions (around 2.5%). Participating firms expect their R&D investments within the EU to increase by 3.5% p.a., while significant increases are expected in the US (+15.1%), China (+20.2%) and India (+22.1%). The proportion of R&D performed within the EU is expected to decrease slightly from 76.0% to 73.4% and has been around three-quarters throughout the EU Survey editions since 2006. Quality and availability of researchers and macroeconomic and political stability are the factors that are rated most often as (highly) attractive by firms performing R&D in the EU only. If we look at firms that perform R&D in the US, we see that these firms value proximity to technology poles and access to markets much more highly than firms that do not perform R&D in the US. Firms performing R&D in China or India value low labour costs and proximity to suppliers much more than firms that do not perform R&D in China or India. Access to markets, macroeconomic stability and quality of personnel are most often rated as the most attractive factors by firms only producing in the EU. Low employment protection is considered least important. Firms with production activities in the US mainly value quality of personnel and access to markets as important factors for deciding on where to locate production. Around 80% of the total R&D investment made by the companies surveyed is spent in the later stages of the development process, namely applied and development activities. By contrast, ‘Basic research' accounts for only about one-tenth of all R&D investment, but also has the lowest concentration level[1] of all types of R&D, which indicates that many firms consider maintaining a level of 'Basic research' important. The largest EU R&D investors are true global players, with the US, Germany, China and France being the main locations for R&D activities. One out of three companies performs R&D in each of the four main economic areas. At the same time, the historical location decision remains an important factor for locating R&D activities: 87% of the respondents mentioned the companies' headquarters location as the country where the highest proportion of R&D is currently being performed, which indicates that the internationalisation and offshoring of R&D activities does not necessarily lead to the disappearance of the home site. This may also be because of the capital intensive investments that have been made initially at the original location. Quality and availability of researchers are factors that companies value the most for the attractiveness of an R&D location, while labour costs are the least important factor. However, low labour costs are rated as much more important by firms that perform R&D outside the EU than by firms that perform R&D only inside the EU. Together with proximity to technology poles, these are the factors that global firms perceive as much more important. Show less
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PDF The 2017 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard
The 2017 edition of the EU R&D Scoreboard (the Scoreboard) comprises the 2500 companies investing the largest sums in R&D… Show more in the world in 2016/17. These companies, based in 43 countries, each invested over €24m in R&D for a total of €741.6bn which is approximately 90% of the world's business-funded R&D. They include 567 EU companies accounting for 26% of the total, 822 US companies for 39%, 365 Japanese companies for 14%, 376 Chinese for 8% and the rest-of-the-world (RoW) for 13%. Show less
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PDF Disentangling the processes of firm growth and R&D investment
Headlines Sales growth kick-starts the growth process, having large effects on subsequent growth of capital expenditures, R&D investment, employment and… Show more operating profits. Policy interventions designed to boost business R&D investment should seek to remove the obstacles to firm growth, because it is sales growth that drives R&D investment. If Europe is to have 'smart growth' whereby firms growth occurs alongside investments in R&D and innovation, there is a key role of demand. Show less
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PDF EU corporate R&D intensity gap: structural features call for a better understanding of industrial dynamics
In order to achieve its 3% target of R&D intensity and boost its competitiveness and job creation, the EU needs… Show more to adapt its industrial structure and increase economic activity in the high-R&D-intensive sectors. A focus on fostering the conditions for the creation and growth of 'new-emerging innovative sectors' (NEIS) is recommended. Show less
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PDF Estimating territorial business R&D expenditures using corporate R&D and patent data
This note describes a methodology to estimate territorial business R&D expenditures funded by the business sector, using R&D and patent… Show more data from top R&D investing companies. Since company data are available with a short delay, the aim is to provide timelines estimations for business R&D in anticipation of its publication by official statistics. The estimation is made for worldwide industrial R&D expenditures, breaking down figures for main world regions and focusing on the EU and its top member states. The industrial coverage comprises main innovative industries, focusing on manufacturing and knowledge intensive services. Show less
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PDF Advanced Manufacturing Activities of Top R&D investors: Geographical and Technological Patterns
This study builds upon and extends results that were obtained in the context of the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies for Competitiveness… Show more AMTEC project, in which the technological profiles of the patent portfolios of the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard companies were constructed using patent-based analysis. The main questions addressed by this study were (1) In which countries are the most important inventors of AMTs and applicants for AMT-related patents located? (2) Is it possible to analyse internationalisation patterns and knowledge flows between world regions and countries? and (3) Are there any special patterns and clusters between AMT related technological fields and the five core KETs and, if so, which companies are responsible for the development of these technological applications? Show less
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PDF Trademark patterns of top R&D-driven innovators. World Trademark Review, Issue 60, April/May 2016, pp. 19-22
Historically, studies seeking to map innovation levels at the corporate level have focused on the prevalence of patent rights and… Show more other indicators. In recent years, though, a growing number of studies in the field of economics of innovation have paid more attention to trademark-based indicators as a proxy for companies' innovative activities. There are many reasons for this, including trademarks' importance in the commercialisation phase of innovations, their wide use across different sizes of firms and types of industry, their direct links with products and the fact that they can be used to protect innovations that are not always patentable. This note considers trademark activity at industry and company levels and compares the trademarks and R&D activity of the top 20 R&D investors. Further research is needed but the findings confirms the role of trademarks as a key intangible asset in the corporate strategies of R&D-driven innovators. Show less
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PDF The Distribution of Technological Activities in Europe: A Regional Perspective
This study analyses the major patterns and trends in the spatial distribution of technological capacities in the EU area over… Show more the 1996-2011 period, adopting a regional perspective. More specifically, the study aims at: a) assessing the level of technological polarization in the EU area and its dynamics; b) highlighting major changes in the patterns of technological specialization of EU regions; c) identifying the technological trajectories that have been more effective, that is able to sustain long-term economic growth and facilitate catching-up processes of EU laggard regions. Show less
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PDF A reappraisal of the impact of corporate R&D and innovation on employment
The aim of this report is to provide updated quantitative and qualitative analyses of the impact of corporate R&D and… Show more innovation on employment in industries and firms in the European Union member states. Over the last decades, the paradigm based on ICT and automation has led to a dramatic adjustment of the employment structure raising again a widespread fear of an upcoming "technological employment". After a critical survey of the more updated empirical evidence on the topic, new econometric analyses (longitudinal data), based on a dynamic labour demand, are provided. The first one is at the sectoral-level and uses OECD STAN-ANBERD data; the second one is at firm-level and uses European R&D top-performers Scoreboard data. In addition, two microeconometric studies, based, respectively, on Italian and Spanish firm-level data, are provided. Finally, in order to offer evidence of the "qualitative" impact of innovation, a tentative study matching, at the sectoral-level, OECD STAN-ANBERD and EU-SILC data, has been provided. Overall, R&D seems to have a positive and significant impact on employment, especially in high-tech industries. Moreover, R&D positively affects the categories of tertiary educated workers, high-skilled white-collars and the employees handling non-routinized tasks. Show less
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My First Employee: An Empirical Investigation. Small Business Economics, forthcoming. DOI:10.1007/s11187-016-9748-3
The challenge for solo entrepreneurs to add their first employee is arguably the single biggest growth event facing any growing… Show more firm. To understand how this event affects performance, and the antecedents of hiring, we analyse Danish matched employer–employee data. Those who hire enjoy superior sales outcomes in subsequent years, while the dispersion in profits increases. Furthermore, those that hire enjoy faster sales growth in the previous year, suggesting that sales growth precedes the first hire. Finally, we show that founders with a stronger profile in terms of education and previous income are more likely to increase profits, while the characteristics of the employee are less important. The latter finding is important from a job creation perspective, in light of the suggested sorting of more marginalized employees into new and established firms. Show less