This thesis explores Thailand's efforts to pursue greater competitiveness in global markets by enhancing the effectiveness of its National System of Innovation. The concept of national system of innovation (NSI) has been employed widely to study and describe the development of science, technology and innovation in a national context. NSI studies seek to explain systematic differences between national economies in their innovation performance in terms of the flow of knowledge among actors/players and the impacts of institutions and factors on their relationships or interactions. The concept was formally introduced into Thai policies in 2001 and it was adopted widely by the organisations directed to build up a strong national innovation system. However, the Thai innovation system has been identified by previous studies as a weak and fragmented system. This study investigates the current situation of the Thai NSI by exploring the relationships and the patterns of knowledge flows among actors in the Thai innovation system; heavily focusing on exploitation of public sector research. A comparative study was undertaken of innovations arising as a result of initiatives arising through the Thai NSI policy. Eighteen case studies were undertaken including 6 that were seen as successful and 12 failures. The study was carried out using in-depth interviews with relevant staff in both public and private sectors together with secondary analysis of science and technology policy implementation in Thailand. The interviews show that there are still many problems hindering the attempt to build up an effective relationship between the public and private sectors; many of them fail to construct R&D collaboration and to conduct technology transfer. The influential factors are analysed and identified from the cases. Those found repeatedly among successes, but largely absent in the failure cases include technological readiness, R&D capability, good management skills, and positive attitude towards R&D while some external factors are found specific to the individual case. Some of them can be contingent factors for particular features of the case resulting in diversity among the cases especially successful ones. The analysis of science and technology policy implementation is also integrated to explore the case studies in order to investigate the impact of those policies on the pattern of the Thai innovation system. Particularly, the policy that has been implemented after the introduction of the NSI concept which was intended to fix the linear model of innovation in Thailand. However, the analysis from this research demonstrates that there is a shortcoming in the adoption of the NSI policy in Thailand as it still follows the 'linear plus' model of innovation (Tait and Williams, 1999) revolving around promoting knowledge flows from research. The development of ST&I is embedded in the advanced science (most in the public sector) not for building up the competitive firms. The centre of development is not on firm capability development to create learning economies but on a science push model. To summarise from the empirical findings, the concept of NSI adopted in Thailand is used as a tool to briefly analyse the big picture of science and technology development at the national level and to identify the problems facing the country. However, this concept alone is not enough to stimulate a country's innovation process. The NSI concept has been understood in two broad ways: the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) mode and the Doing, Using and Interacting (DUI) mode. In Thailand the former has prevailed. Secondly, the concept itself is too broad and vague to be used as the main guideline for building up innovative capacity; it only tells what should be done not how to do it. The NSI helps Thailand to initiate change in its ST&I development process although greater attention should be given to the DUI mode. However, the process requires other frameworks to support and translate the NSI concept into the level of action plans. As a result this research suggests that the factors that determine the success of technology/knowledge transfer are not only from the policy level but also other factors from the bottom up level such as social factors determining the relationships among actors.

This study examines the relationship between R&D intensity (R&D/sales) and firm value. Additionally, both the moderating effect of endogenous firm characteristics (i.e. firm size, leverage and the interaction between size and leverage) and institutional quality are considered. By employing a sample of 1,833 firms throughout 49 countries, this study finds evidence supporting a positive association between R&D and firm value in its cross-national sample. Moreover, the results support the positive moderating effect of leverage on the relationship between R&D and firm value, in favour of the disciplining role of debt. Furthermore, a negative moderating effect of firm size is found, suggesting that smaller firms possess a superior ability to appropriate value from their R&D investments. Lastly, the size-leverage interaction reveals that small firms with high leverage reap the greatest firm value from their R&D investments.

Economia / MASTERS IN ECONOMICS / The relationship between patents and R&D involves different levels besides the ones most obvious to us. Throughout the history of economics, patents have arisen as the core of a system of incentives to private pursue of R&D investments, providing the mechanism that guaranteed the appropriability of the output of the knowledge produced. The seminal work of Romer (1990) demonstrated the need to develop a system to assure the necessary return on innovative efforts and thus privately sustain a model of continuous technological improvement and economic growth. Patenting would result in imperfect competition and legally establish the monopoly over the use of the knowledge produced. This led to patents being perceived as an intermediate output of R&D efforts. Though this relationship has been subject of intensive study by economists, the reverse causality issue remains to be thoroughly analyzed, particularly in a negative sense. Can more patents have a negative effect on R&D investment? In the present thesis we address this question, synthesizing the theoretical and empirical studies concerning both the conventional R&D-patents relationship and the reverse causality, in particular, the potential for a negative impact of patents over R&D. The theoretical survey on this issue uncovered several gaps in the literature, specifically in terms of availability of empirical analysis at the country level. Despite the literature on reverse causality direction being scarce; the macroeconomic perspective on this issue is even more unexplored. In fact, there is no evidence that ruled out the possibility of asymmetric effects of patents on R&D in accordance to the level of GDP and technology in general, and to `convergence clubs in particular. Using panel data econometric estimation methods on a sample of 88 countries, over a eight-year period (1996-2003), and controlling for clubs of convergence to account for differences among countries in stages of economic development, we found mix support to the negativity of patent on R&D investment. Stratifying the sample by convergence clubs we obtain that accumulated patents positively impact on R&D intensity for the set of less developed countries whereas no statistically significant effect emerges in the case of higher developed converge clubs. Interestingly, when we restrict the highest developed convergence club down to countries with a R&D intensity above 3%, the negativity reverse causality arises, corroborating the asymmetric impact of patents on R&D investment depending on countries development and technological stage. Finally, we demonstrate that albeit causality appears to be stronger in the most intuitive appealing traditional direction, there is evidence supporting the theoretical conveyed double causality between R&D and Patent. JEL-codes: O31, O34

Economia e Gestão Internacional / Master in International Economics and Management / Os estudos que se debruçam sobre a influência e o impacto de organizações geradores de conhecimento (e.g., universidades ou instituições de I&D) têm sido, normalmente, abordados por meio da análise estritamente económica, enfatizando o seu impacto económico no âmbito local, regional ou nacional. No presente estudo, avança-se com uma metodologia alternativa de modo a avaliar a influência e o impacto científico internacional de uma instituição geradora e difusora de conhecimento. São assim estudados dois ramos da literatura que tratam, por um lado, da mensurabilidade do impacto económico de organizações de I&D, e por outro lado, dos fluxos de conhecimento: nomeadamente, estudos económicos tradicionais e análises cienciométricas e bibliométricas. Consequentemente, apresentamos aqui uma metodologia complementar, baseada na cienciometria e bibliometria, por considerar a influência de uma instituição de I&D através da análise da produção científica desenvolvida e por via do reconhecimento da sua relevância pela comunidade científica internacional. Concretamente, tendo como caso de estudo o INESC Porto, analisamos a dinâmica da sua produção científica durante os últimos doze anos, dando especial relevo à evolução das suas co-autorias científicas internacionais, delineando a arquitectura da sua network de conhecimento, bem como da sua estrutura (provavelmente) mutável. Adicionalmente, dando um enfoque especial às suas áreas científicas mais prolíficas, e atendendo ao trabalho científico registado no Science Citation Index (SCI), mapeamos as citações e inferimos sobre a sua influência e o seu impacto científico internacional. Desta forma, somos capazes de quantificar e mapear a rede científica internacional de uma organização produtora de conhecimento, através do uso de métodos estatísticos descritivos e geográficos, bem como por meio de modelos logit, que permitem a visualização do âmbito e a avaliação da importância da estrutura de influência internacional do INESC Porto. Os resultados demonstram que o INESC Porto tem vindo a expandir a sua rede científica internacional. De facto, a sua rede de influência ao nível do conhecimento chega aos cinco continentes. Para além disso, as estimações econométricas levam-nos a concluir que a influência geográfica alargada da investigação científica do INESC Porto não é resultado do seu posicionamento internacional em termos de co-autorias, mas antes sim da qualidade intrínseca da sua produção científica.

This dissertation analyzes the contracting problem between a firm and the research employees in its R&D department. The dissertation consists of two chapters. The first chapter addresses a simplified problem in which the R&D unit has only one agent. The second chapter studies a scenario in which the R&D unit consists of a team. In the first chapter, I look at problem in which a principal hires an agent to do a multi-stage R&D project. The transition from one stage to the next is modeled by a Poisson-type process, whose arrival rate depends on the agents choice of effort. I assume that effort choice is binary and unobservable by the principal. To overcome the repeated moral-hazard problem, the principal offers the agent a long-term contract which specifies a flow of payments based on his observation of the outcome of the project. The optimal contract combines rewards and punishments: the payment to the agent decrease over time in case of failure and jumps up to a higher level after each success. I also show that the optimal contract can be implemented by using a risky security that has some of the features of the stocks of these firms, thereby providing a theoretical justification for the wide-spread use of stock-based compensation in firms that rely on R&D. In the second chapter, I look at a scenario in which the R&D unit consists of a team, which I assume, for simplicity, comprises two risk-averse agents. Now, the Poisson arrival rate is jointly determined by the actions of both agents with the action of each remaining unobservable by both the principal and the other agent. I assume that when success in a phase occurs the principal can identify the agent who was responsible for it. In this model, incentive compatibility means that each agent is willing to exert effort conditional on his coworker putting in effort, and thus exerting effort continuously is a Nash-equilibrium strategy played by the agents. In this multiagent problem, each agents payment depends not only on his own performance, but is affected by the other agents performance as well. Similar to the single-agent case, an agent is rewarded when he succeeds, and his payment decreases over time when both agents fail. Regarding how an agents payment relates to his coworkers performance, I find that the optimal incentive regime is a function of the way in which agents efforts interact with one another: relative-performance evaluation is used when their efforts are substitutes whereas joint-performance evaluation is used when their efforts are complements. This result sheds new light on the notion of optimal incentive regimes, an issue that has been widely discussed in multi-agent incentive problems.

本研究同時考量代理理論及資源依賴理論之觀點，認為內部董事雖因任職於公司而造成其獨立性受損，監督誘因較低，但內部董事因具備有企業特定知識與內部有用資訊，故可有效評估策略並作成適當決策，尤以在高R&D投入之企業中，更需要具備企業特定知識之人，因此，本研究探討R&D支出與內部董事席次比率間之關係，並進一步分析R&D對內部董事與經營績效關聯性之影響。 實證結果顯示，高R&D投入與內部董事席次比率間呈顯著正相關，表示在R&D密度高的公司中，其公司的董事會中會有較高的內部董事席次。在高R&D密度的公司，內部董事席次比率與公司經營績效呈顯著正向關係。表示在高研發投入公司，公司特定專業知識之需求較高，內部董事資源提供之功能強於監督之需求，因而有較多內部董事席次之公司會有較佳之經營績效。 / This paper considered both agency theory and resource-dependence theory. Although hired by the firm, inside directors may have lower monitoring incentives, they have firm-specific knowledge and useful information and can evaluate strategies effectively and make better decisions. Especially in those high-R&D firms need firm-specific knowledge, therefore, this paper examines the relationship between R&D and the percentage of inside director, and also examines the relationship between inside director and firm performance in high-R&D firms. The empirical results finds that R&D and inside director are significantly positive. It shows that high-R&D firms will have higher percentage of inside directors in their boards. And the empirical results also finds that in high-R&D firms, they will have more specific professional knowledge need, and inside directors’ resource-provision function is stronger than the monitoring function, therefore, firms with higher percentage of inside directors will have better firm performance.

在主要的文獻中皆認為工業地域能帶來外部經濟，諸如: 廠商在工業地域中能受益於外部知識以及依賴外部知識的資源、仰賴外部知識的關係，而成為廠商創新的動能。 據此，我們以生物科技產業作為觀察對象，觀察工業地域廠商研發績效的研究。首先，將台灣劃分為北、中、南三個主要之工業地域，其次以「工業地域」、「產業群聚」、「地理鄰近性」以及「研發網絡」等四項外部性因素觀察在此區域下廠商之研發績效，第三，我們同時分析影響生物科技產業研發績效的內部因素，包括「研發部門」、「員工人數」、「研發人數」以及「研發支出」。 研究結果顯示，地理鄰近性有利於知識的分享，交互作用在廠商的學習與創新。而我們也發現，產業群聚對生物科技產業之研發績效是很重要的影響因素。除此之外，一般研究所實證的「員工人數」以及「研發人數」對廠商之研發績效有影響，在本研究也得到了一致性的證實，由此顯示豐沛的知識是生物科技產業的核心。最後，我們驗證低研發支出對生物科技產業的研發績效呈現負相關，以及生物科技產業之研發績效在劃分的三個工業地域表現中，無顯著之差異。 關鍵字：工業地域、研發績效 / The body literature tends to assume that industrial district can increase external economies. For example, all the competitiveness firms in a industrial district can get the benefit from external knowledge. Depending on exteral sources of knowledge and relationships will be the energy of innovation. Accordingly, our research examines the effect of industrial district on the R&D performance of biotechnology industry . In this study, first we demarcate three main industrial clustering districts in Taiwan. Second, we observe the R&D performance in the three main industrial clustering districts by four external factors which are industrial district, industry cluster, geographical proximity and R&D network.; and third we also analyze internal factors on the impact of performance of biotechnology industry, which are R&D department, number of employees, R&D personnel and R&D expense. Results show that geographical proximity facilitates knowledge sharing and interactive learning and innovation. Moreover, we find that industry cluster is an important factor of R&D performance of biotechnology industry. In addition, the general claim that number of employees and R&D personnel are helpful to firm’s R&D performance. In our research we find the same conclusion, that shows abounding knowledge is the core of the biotechnology industry. Finally, the empirical results indicate that low R&D expense is negatively related to R&D performance, and there is no different performance on Taiwan’s three main industrial clustering districts. Keywords:Industrial district, R&D performance

<p> </p><p>This study concerns the implications of the discretion in the cut-off point in the accounting method for research and development. Our research problem targets the issues to reduce the existing research gap:</p><ul><li>- "Does the choice of accounting method for research and development matter when a creditor evaluates a company for a credit granting decision?"</li><li>- "How does the accounting method for research and development matter in a credit granting decision?"</li></ul><p>Our study aims to answer these questions by investigating and analyzing the credit granting assessment and by interviewing creditors at the major banks in Sweden. Fictitious case scenarios provide in-depth information about how the accounting methods matter for a credit granting decision.</p><p>We develop this study by gathering existing material regarding accounting standards, the accounting method and the credit granting assessment. Previous studies about credit granting and the accounting methods supplement the theoretical material.</p><p>The approach to this study is a hermeneutic approach that tries to grasp the entire picture of the respondents' opinion about the accounting methods. To gain detailed and extensive information from the respondents, we use a qualitative research with semi-structured interviews. The research sample consists of experienced creditors at the largest banks in Sweden. This is to ensure relevant and informative answers on our questions. We utilise the four case scenarios to encourage the respondents to elaborate upon the accounting methods for R&D. This provides detailed knowledge about how the accounting methods matter for a credit granting decision.</p><p>The respondent states that abnormal values in the R&D account are suspicious and that investigation and adjustments of these values occurs if necessary. From this summarised statement, we draw the conclusion that the accounting methods for R&D matter in a credit granting decision. However, we also establish that other factors are more influential on the decision. Furthermore, we find that the creditors examine the content of the R&D account because the methods and its content have different impact on the financial statements. The expense method indicates a negative impact on the credit granting decision if the company cannot carry the costs, while the recognition method gives an appearance of stronger financial statements. However, the recognition method also gives rise to suspicions if the company relies on previous achievements. We conclude that depending on the amount of R&D both methods can be perceived as an advantage and a disadvantage for a credit granting decision, however, our main finding suggests that a revaluation of the abnormal values in the R&D account occurs.</p><p>From the support of our findings, we believe that our research has accomplished the objective of the study and we therefore believe that we have contributed to the existing knowledge in the subject.</p><p> </p>

<p>Over the last few decades, the industrialized world in general and the automobile industry in particular was hit by immense changes which strongly influence the management of R&D. Trends such as globalization and sharp competition on worldwide open markets, increasing product complexity in order to meet the customers’ desires for more variety and individualization, technology fusion and cross industry innovations, high level of technological and competitive uncertainty, increasing pressure to reduce R&D budgets, and shorter time to market and reduced innovation cycles in consequence of rising competition, force companies to source external knowledge and to bring in and exploit outside-in innovations instead of reinventing them their selves. In the same way, the Open Innovation concept highlights the need for organizations to open up their innovation processes. As a consequence, many R&D organizations are being transformed in order to meet the upcoming challenges and established technological listening posts to source external knowledge in centers of technological excellence and innovation.</p><p>This study focus on the knowledge acquisition, transformation and transfer from innovation cluster to central R&D, and examines the roles and typologies of technological gatekeepers. Based on a sound literature review and in-depth qualitative study of the case company BMW, this thesis explores how technological listening posts can take the mediating role of technology gatekeepers and how different mechanisms and typologies for gatekeeping can be deployed for optimal transformation and transfer of external knowledge into internal innovation.</p>

No description available.