There has been a long line of studies concerning the nexus between R&D expenditure and Economic Performance. However, there has been little research on this nexus on a regional level in Germany. This paper aims to analyse the relationship between R&D expenditure (total, business sector and public sector each) and GDP per capita at a regional level in Germany for the time period 2000-2017. The method of estimation employed in fixed effects panel regression analysis. It is found that total R&D expenditure and regional GDP per capita have an insiginificant relationship, but a negtiavely significant one when a lagged value of R&D expenditure is considered. The relationship between public R&D expenditure and regional GDP per capita is significantly negative, whereas the relationship between business sector R&D expenditure and regional GDP per capita is insignificant. Further scope for research could include analysing the effect of regional innovation clusters and the role of R&D strategy in improving the economic performance of regions in Germany.

Since the dawn of the capitalist epoch, most advanced countries have seen more than a hundred fold change in their total products. This combined with a near five fold change in population size had brought a huge windfall of wealth in these countries. The main engine for this capitalist machine has been the accelaration of technical progress (Maddison, 1982). In this paper we investigate for the positive relationship between the existing stock of technology and accelaration of technical progress. We use the time series data from 1982-2002 to test our regression model. The model encapsulates annual patents turnover (proxy for acceleration of technical progress), patent stock (proxy for technological stock) and R&D expenditures of four advanced countries as the primary variables, where the former acts as the dependent variable and the later two act as the determinant variables. The model projects a highly significant positive relationship between technology stock and the pace of technological progress, endorsing our hypothesis.

<p>Since the dawn of the capitalist epoch, most advanced countries have seen more than a hundred fold change in their total products. This combined with a near five fold change in population size had brought a huge windfall of wealth in these countries. The main engine for this capitalist machine has been the accelaration of technical progress (Maddison, 1982). In this paper we investigate for the positive relationship between the existing stock of technology and accelaration of technical progress. We use the time series data from 1982-2002 to test our regression model. The model encapsulates annual patents turnover (proxy for acceleration of technical progress), patent stock (proxy for technological stock) and R&D expenditures of four advanced countries as the primary variables, where the former acts as the dependent variable and the later two act as the determinant variables. The model projects a highly significant positive relationship between technology stock and the pace of technological progress, endorsing our hypothesis.</p>

Corporate taxation is a very politicized topic, and policymakers have different perspectives on what level of corporate tax rate yields the optimal outcome for research and innovation activity. The argument is divided where one side believes that corporate taxation and R&amp;D activity has a negative relationship, which implies that a decrease in corporate taxation yields a better outcome for firms’ R&amp;D activity. Whilst the other side believes that there exists a positive relationship, implying that the prevailing strategy is to increase corporate taxes to further encourage R&amp;D activity. Therefore, the inherent purpose of this study focuses on the effect that corporate taxation has on the U.S corporate environment, whilst researching to understand the two polarized perspectives on corporate taxation and discover which perspective appears more prominent. To succeed in this regard, this study extracts internal financial information from firms located in the U.S states, by comparing the corporate tax change that the Trump administration implemented in 2018. Enabling this research study to compare firms’ R&amp;D expenditure during the pre-tax reform (2017) with the post-tax reform (2018), indicating a firm’s differences in R&amp;D expenditure. The difference-in-difference method was used with a total sample size of 71 firms, which uses a control group and a treatment group to negate macro-environmental disruptions to indicate the accurate effects of the tax policy change. The results state that companies that experienced a reduction in corporate taxes raised their R&amp;D expenditure, approximately by 11.60%. This showed that there was a very large increase in R&amp;D activity when corporate taxation was significantly lowered, which would support the literature’s findings that suggested the existence of a negative relationship. However, the research yielded a result that would indicate that the 11.60% increase was not a statistically significant result and that further studies need to be conducted.

This thesis is concerned with mathematical modelling and optimal control of constrained systems. Each of the systems under consideration is a system that can be controlled by one of the variables, and this control is subject to constraints. First, we consider middle-distance running where a runner's horizontal propulsive force is the control which is constrained to be within a given range. Middle-distance running is typically a strategy-intensive race as slipstreaming effects come into play since speeds are still relatively fast and runners can leave their starting lane. We formulate a two-runner coupled model and determine optimal strategies using optimal control theory. Second, we consider two applications of control systems with delay related to R&D expenditure. The first of these applications relates to the defence industry. The second relates to the pharmaceutical industry. Both applications are characterised by a long delay between initial investment in R&D and seeing the benefits of R&D realised. We formulate models tailored to each application and use optimal control theory to determine the optimal proportion of available funds to invest in R&D over a given time horizon. Third, we consider a mathematical model of urban burglary based on the Short model. We make some modifications to this model including the addition of deterrence due to police officer presence. Police officer density is the control variable, which is constrained due to a finite number of police officers. We look at different control strategies for the police and their effect on burglary hot-spot formation.

The main purpose of this study is to enhance the analysis of the impact of R&amp;D expenditure on firms’ growth. This study adopts an OLS regression for a data sample of 46 firms listed on Nasdaq Stockholm for the 2006-2019 period. We present models with R&amp;D expenditure and R&amp;D intensity as the main mechanisms of firm growth, defined as sales growth in this study. Furthermore, firm size, firm age and sector belonging determining the R&amp;D and sales growth relationship are also investigated. We find that R&amp;D intensity has a statistically significant negative impact on firm growth, while R&amp;D expenditure does not show a statistically significant relationship to firm growth. Thus, the results of this paper suggest that devoting a higher proportion of your sales to R&amp;D activities does not translate into firm growth.

本文的研究意旨在於探討企業所投入的研究發展支出及資本支出對經營績效及股價報酬產生何種影響，希望能提供給企業經營者在決定研發政策或資本支出決策時參考。 本論文以國內上市櫃公司（除金融服務業外）作為研究樣本，並以2001年至2011年間為實證期間，進行迴歸模型分析，探討研發支出、資本支出等重大支出對於公司經營績效及股價報酬所產生的效果，並探討國內電子次產業如半導體產業、光電產業、電腦周邊產業及電子零組件產業在研發與資本支出對經營績效與股價報酬的影響差異度；本論文在公司經營績效及市場價值的衡量指標，係以公司之資產報酬率、股東權益報酬率、營業毛利率、營業淨利率、營收成長率及公司Tobin’s Q值與股價報酬等作為衡量指標。 實證結果發現： 一、 就全體產業而言，研究發展支出對於企業之營業毛利率、營業淨利率及Tobin’s Q值有顯著正相關，但對於企業之營收成長率、資產報酬率、股東權益報酬率以及公司股價報酬率等項目並未出現顯著相關性；資本支出對企業之資產報酬率及股東權益報酬率則出現顯著負相關，同時資本支出對企業Tobin’s Q值及股價報酬率出現顯著負相關，但對於企業之營收成長率、營業毛利率、營業淨利率等未出現顯著相關性。 二、 針對電子次產業實證結果： 1. 針對半導體產業實證發現，研究發展支出對於公司資產報酬率出現顯著正相關，資本支出對於公司Tobin’s Q值及股價報酬率則呈現顯著負相關。 2. 針對光電產業的實證發現，研究發展支出對於企業經營績效指標包括公司營收成長率、營業毛利率、營業淨利率、資產報酬率及股東權益報酬率等，全數呈現顯著正相關；而資本支出對於公司Tobin’s Q值或股價報酬率呈現顯著正相關，但對於營業毛利率、營業淨利率、資產報酬率及股東權益報酬率等則呈現顯著負相關。 3. 針對電腦週邊產業的實證發現，研究發展支出對於公司營收成長率、營業淨利率、資產報酬率、股東權益報酬率及公司Tobin’s Q值等皆呈現顯著正相關；而資本支出則對於公司營收成長率出現顯著正相關。 4. 針對零組件產業的實證發現，研究發展支出對於公司營收成長率、營業毛利率、營業淨利率、資產報酬率、股東權益報酬率、公司Tobin’s Q值及股價報酬率等全數呈現顯著正相關；而資本支出對於公司營業毛利率、資產報酬率及股東權益報酬率等出現顯著負相關。 / This research mainly examines the related effect of R&D expenditure and capital investment on corporate performance and company’s stock price. The results of this study are trying to offer reference opinions to corporate executive officers that will make R&D or capital investment decisions. In this study, the database includes the listed companies in Taiwan Stock exchange except the finance industry from 2001 to 2011. We adopt R&D expenditure and capital investment as the independent variables of evaluating of corporate performance and company’s stock price, and also choose the growth rate of sales, the operating margin ratio, the net profit margin ratio, the return on total assets, the return on equity, Tobin's Q Ratio and company’s stock price as the dependent variables. The results of this investigation could be summarized as follows: 1. For all targeted industries, R&D expenditure had positive, significant influence on the operating margin ratio, the net profit margin ratio and Tobin's Q Ratio. Capital investment had negative, significant influence on the return on total assets, the return on equity, Tobin's Q Ratio and company’s stock price. 2. For Semiconductor industry, R&D expenditure had positive, significant influence on the return on total assets. Capital investment had negative, significant influence on Tobin's Q Ratio and company’s stock price. 3. For Optoelectronics industry, R&D expenditure had positive, significant influence on growth rate of sales, the operating margin ratio, the net profit margin ratio, the return on total assets, the return on equity. Capital investment had positive, significant influence on Tobin's Q Ratio and company’s stock price. 4. For Computer peripheral industry, R&D expenditure had positive, significant influence on growth rate of sales, the operating margin ratio, the net profit margin ratio, the return on total assets, the return on equity, and Tobin's Q Ratio. Capital investment had positive, significant influence on the growth rate of sales. 5. For Electronic components/material industry, R&D expenditure had positive, significant influence on growth rate of sales, the operating margin ratio, the net profit margin ratio, the return on total assets, the return on equity, Tobin's Q Ratio and company’s stock price. Capital investment had negative, significant influence on the operating margin ratio, the return on total assets and the return on equity.

本論文為關於營利與非營利機構之營運管理策略之兩篇理論性質的文章。 第一篇文章旨在探討營利機構之實質盈餘管理策略。本研究檢驗在產品市場競爭下，公司如何透過實質盈餘管理策略來滿足盈餘目標之要求以及公司之實質盈餘管理動機會如何影響市場競爭對手之行為。本文考慮一個兩期非合作之R&D競爭寡占模型。本文假設存在資訊不對稱；具有私人資訊的廠商為追求獲利最大亦或追求盈餘目標達成兩種類型。本文透過完美貝氏均衡 (perfect Bayesian equilibrium) 解出分離均衡 (separating equilibrium) 與混和均衡 (hybrid equilibrium)。 本研究指出追求獲利最大類型之廠商可以藉由影響競爭對手之猜測來進一步左右追求盈餘目標達成類型之目標達成之可能性。在分離均衡中，當外在成本衝擊未超過預期時，追求獲利最大類型之廠商無誘因藉由R&D 投資水準之提升來規避負向成本衝擊以影響市場對手猜測並且進一步提升其產品市場競爭力。因此，追求盈餘目標達成類型之盈餘目標無法達成。 在混和均衡中，當外在成本衝擊超過預期時，追求獲利最大類型之廠商有誘因採取混合策略以誤導市場對手之猜測;該類型之廠商可以藉由部分模仿盈餘目標達成類型之R&D 投資策略以混淆競爭對手之信念並且提升其產品產出、獲利水準。在此，追求盈餘目標達成類型之盈餘目標能夠達成。本研究之結果有別於傳統R&D盈餘管理實證文獻中，公司內部當局有誘因透過R&D支出的減少用以滿足公司短期之盈餘目標 (Barber et. al., 1991; Bushee, 1998; Graham, 2005) 。本研究指出公司可以藉由R&D 投資水準之提升，以創造“cookie jar” 並且有助於公司獲利提升與盈餘目標之達成。此外，本研究與盈餘奇異現象之實證研究 (earnings kinky) 結論一致: 公司可以藉由盈餘管理策略來達成盈餘目標，但是盈餘目標之達成不盡然是透過盈餘管理策略 (Dechow, Richardson and Tuna, 2003)。 第二篇文章旨在探討非營利機構提供非獲利性質服務之策略性之影響。本研究指出非獲利性質服務之提供不僅有助於非營利機構於獲利性質服務之競爭優勢的提升，相對於營利機構。當所有權與經營權分離時，若市場需求彈性為不具彈性時，非獲利性質服務之提供對非營利機構之經理人而言，可以做為一個策略工具藉以促使該機構之所有人提供一個於獲利部分過分補償之薪酬水準。此外，隨著非獲利性質服務之外生價格的提升，當非營利性質服務之外生價格的提升對於非營利機構之所有人與經理人利益衝突影響之間接效果大於對獲利性質服務價格影響之直接效果時，非營利機構之所有人仍然會提供一個獲利部分過分補償之薪酬水準。這會有助於非營利機構於獲利性質服務之競爭優勢的提升。 / This dissertation consists of two theoretical studies on the operation strategies of for-profit and non-profit firms. Chapter 1 addresses how firms use real earnings management to meet or beat their earnings targets, and how this influences sequential product market competition. We study this issue in a two-period non-cooperative R&D competition with one-sided asymmetric information in which the informed firm could be either the maximizing type or the target-meeting type (or target-beating). We show that the maximizing type of the informed firm’s R&D investment level could influence rival firm’s conjecture about the informed firm’s type which in term affects the success of meeting or beating the target for the target-meeting type of the informed firm. We find that the privately informed firm can increase its R&D investment in the first period to meet or beat the earnings target. This can help the firm increase profits in a sequential product market competition. More precisely, once the cost uncertainty realized is realized to exceed expectations, the maximizing type of the informed firm could hide its identity by adopting a mixed strategy and setting its R&D investment and output level higher than in the separating equilibrium. Contrary to popular claims that meeting or beating short earnings targets induces an R&D investment reduction (Barber et. al., 1991; Bushee, 1998; Graham, 2005), we show that R&D overinvestment can give an opportunity to create some reserves, i.e., a cookie jar, to be used later to earn a higher profit and reach later targets. Our result is also supporting the observation of firms meeting or beating the earnings target, but not necessarily using earnings management (Dechow, Richardson and Tuna, 2003). Chapter 2 shows that the provision of not-for profit service would not only give not-for-profit organizations a competitive advantage over for-profit organizations. Under the separation of control and ownership, we illustrate that once market demand is inelastic, the provision of not-for-profit service serves as a strategic device for the manager of a not-for-profit organization and thus induces the owner of a not-for-profit organization to overcompensate his manager regarding the margin of profit. Moreover, as the regulated price of not-for-profit service increases, a not-for-profit organization could still over-compensate his manager in regard to profit, when the indirect effect on increasing preference difference between the owner and manager of the not-for-profit organization dominates the direct effect on market price. Thus, a not-for-profit organization could charge more in for-profit service.