Despite the huge sum of money that is being spent on research and development (R & D) on yearly basis by firms, very few empirical studies exist to shed more lights about the effects of this practice on firm performance. However, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in their publication of International Accounting Standard (IAS) 38, require that expenditures incurred during R & D should either be expensed in the statement of comprehensive income or capitalized as an intangible asset in the statement of financial position provided certain criteria are fulfilled (IASB, 2012, p. 1045).Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of expensed R & D and/or capitalized R & D on firm performance METHOD: Data for the study was collected from the audited financial statements of firms listed at the London Stock Exchange as well as from the website of this stock market. Two sampling techniques were utilized in the study; namely stratified sampling and random sampling. Stratified sampling technique was used to stratify the companies into various industries while random sampling was used to randomly select firms that are engaged in R & D from each of these industries. The final sample consisting of 52 firms gave a total of 260 observations for a period of 5 years between December 31st, 2007 to December 31st, 2011.Expensed R & D and capitalized R & D were obtained by taking the averages of statement of comprehensive income R & D to Revenue and statement of financial position R & D to revenue respectively. Moreover, firm performance was measured using accounting-based indicators which were Return on Asset (ROA), Return on Capital Employed (ROCE), Dividend Yield (DY), Dividend Cover (DC), Earnings per Share (EPS), Price Earnings Ratio (PE) and Capital Gearing Ratio (CGR). RESULTS: The results of the study show that expensed R & D has a significant positive impact on DC, a significant negative impact on EPS, positively correlated with CGR with no significant impact and negatively correlated with ROA, ROCE, DY and PE but had no significant impact. As concerns capitalized R & D, the results reveal that capitalized R & D has a significant negative impact on ROA, ROCE and EPS, positively correlated with CGR but have no significant impact and negatively correlated with DY, DC and PE as well though no significant impact was found.

This paper examines whether Swedish listed firms use research and development (R&D) accounting as a tool for income smoothing (hypothesis 1). One controversial accounting issue concerning R&D is that R&D capitalization could be influenced by earnings management purposes due to a subjective accounting treatment. We also examine whether firms´ degree of fluctuation in return on assets (ROA) has an effect on income smoothing behavior (hypothesis 2). Finally, we investigate if the level of flexibility allowed in the R&D accounting with the different accounting standards, BFN R1, RR 15 and IAS 38 has an effect on income smoothing behavior (hypothesis 3). We study the accounts for 21 firms for the years 1998-2000, 52 firms for 2002-2004 and 59 firms for 2007-2009. Using multiple regression analysis we find that the income smoothing hypothesis is supported in period two (2002-2004). The regression analysis also indicates that firms with low change in ROA tend to capitalize more R&D when they are less profitable than prior year. Our results also imply that the level of flexibility in different accounting standards does not have an effect on income smoothing behavior and hypothesis 3 is not supported.

As the increase of competition levels, the ability of generating a continuous stream of innovation occupies an exceptionally important role in the development and manufacturing of companies, especially in bio-pharmaceutical industry in United States. This paper presents an empirical perspective on the nature of innovation of the U.S. bio-pharmaceutical companies. Several issues discussed here are central to a study of R&D expenditure's determinates of top listed bio-pharmaceutical companies sampling from U.S. market. It begins with the background information of innovation in overall bio-pharmaceutical sector, and then moves on to detail of R&D activities in bio-pharmaceutical industry. Next it discusses the estimated factors which influence R&D expenditures, following by previous literatures review. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and to test financial and non-financial factors determining R&D expenditures for individual top technique bio-pharmaceutical listed firms through literature review using data for the 2001 to 2010 periods by both single variable analysis and multiple variable analyses empirically. Moreover, the further step in this study is to investigate the real relations between those factor and R&D expenditures individually and synthetically. In this way, this work helps us have a more clear understanding on the relationship between firm performance and firm R&D expenditures. More specifically, the study provides evidence on three essential issues. To answer there three questions, the paper conducts both single variables analysis and multiple variable analysis. For single variable analyses, first step is to draw scatter plots based on 97 sets of data by using MARLAB software. Following this step, to illustrate the exact correlation between the given independent variable and dependent variable (the natural logarithm of R&D), after processing data filter the paper adopt curve fitting based on varying sets of data. According to the results from this study, the conclusions obtained can be divided into two streams. First type is the one that the hypothesis get support from this study. For instance, there is a significantly positive correlation between firm size and R&D expenditures as expected. Also, just as expected, a high sales growth rate is positively correlated with R&D expenditures based on given sample. Besides, it is proved in this paper that R&Di,t-1 have a lagged effect on the R&Dit expenditures. The other type is that hypothesis cannot be proved, no significant evidence have been found or not as effective as what have been estimated in hypothesis. For example, it is not reasonable to say the R&D expenditures and operating profit margin have a positive correlation. Moreover, the lnR&Dit and cash flow to sales income rate also have no obvious correlation. According to the analyses of two multiple variable models, all six variables can be regarded as the determinants of R&D expenditures; especially the variable of firm 3 / 105 size is the major. Additionally, some interesting findings provided in the end of this study.

Taiwan's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play an important role to promote economic development. White paper on small and medium enterprises in Taiwan, 2004 indicated SMEs¡¦ numbers is 97.83% of whole industry. So SMEs is the main force in Taiwn¡¦s industry. According to National Science Council review SMEs in Taiwan engage in R¡®D activities facing the captial and technological barriers, and the percentage that accept government subsidy is 13%(National Science Council, 2000). The Deptartment of Industrial Technology (DOIT) of Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), launched Taiwan's SBIR promoting program, mostly referred to the SBIR US version, in 1999 in order to encourage local start-up companies pursuing innovative research of industrial technologies and products. Rothwell & Zegveld (1982) research government innovation policy include technology and industry policy, classify three composes:Supply, Demand, and Environmential policy. In government R&D subsidy policy system can be distinguished to R&D procurement(Demand) and directive subsidy(Supply). The study compare to other country¡¦s R&D subsidy policy and refer to business technology strategy. The study uses the interview method to analyze the policy awareness of SMEs and confer the policy influence of SBIR subsidy policy. So far as bring up the suggestion of government R&D subsidy policy. Through interview analysis, SMEs represent in the beginning of R&D activities always face capital shortage and need technological assistance. The study propose government carry out R&D subsidy should replace monitoring control for concilling system. Government can match up national industry development way to alliance industry engage in specific R&D activity by government R&D subsidy policy. To sum up government can weighted the Demand and Supply side innovation policy to cooperate R&D subsidy policy system. So that government R&D subsidy policy can look after both side by stimulating SMEs innovation generality and promote national technology level to reach the full-scale policy achievements.

Although R&D activities continue to be the latest internationalized of MNCs¡¦ value adding activities even in the most internationalized industries, affiliates of MNCs have begun to account for a considerable proportion of domestic innovative activity in a number of countries. MNC decision-makings with respect to the location of R&D is determined by many factors, such as cost consideration, market size, excellent technological environment, policy factor, to transfer technology and to adapt their technology to the host market. Those above are R&D motivations. Therefore, this research will explore if the R&D motivations affect the R&D strategy. Furthermore, many researches also found that the firm-specific features effects the R&D strategy. And the firm-specific features in the research include nationality, size, the degree of R&D capability and resources in the MNC subsidiary. Finally, the research categorizes the R&D strategies into locally responsive R&D strategy and globally integrated R&D strategy. The purpose of this research is to explore a framework to analyze the relationship among the dependent variables (that are motivation and firm-specific feature) and the independent variable (that are locally responsive R&D strategy and globally integrated R&D strategy). 54 samples of MNC subsidiaries in Taiwan are used in this research, and method of multiple regression is used to test these hypotheses. Finally, we can find that R&D motivations and firm-specific features have significant effects on R&D strategies practices in MNC subsidiaries in Taiwan.

The Taiwan IC assembly industry was based on foreign IDM to establish the IC factories, who led to assembly, test and quality control technology for the back-end production in 1960. The foundation of Taiwan IC assembly industry is until the first local assembly house was established in 1971. The report studies on the relation between the products R&D strategy and core resources in IC assembly industry. With the one of local companies for sample, studies the R&D strategy on product and its model in rapid growth in the recent 15 years. Hoping the report can contribute to industry in specific R&D strategy, technology enhancement and the further study. Key Word: Semiconductor Packaging¡FR&D Strategy¡FR&D Strategy Development Model¡FLife Cycle

Innovation is widely recognized as a key to economic growth. Most research on the innovation process has focused on the results of R&D projects. The positive relation between R&D intensity as an input and innovative performance as an output has become the canonical image for research on innovation. While R&D is an important input to innovation, there is growing evidence that a significant share of innovation is not born from R&D. Much of this non-R&D innovation consists of incremental improvements to existing products, or process innovations, although non-R&D innovation is not limited to these kinds of improvements. Non-R&D innovations can also come from problem solving activities or pursuit of new product ideas outside of a formal R&D project. Such activities would be missed in innovation accounts based on regular, formal R&D. Given the importance of innovation for the sociology and economics of science, and the central role of innovation in policy debates, this study expands the study of innovation to include non-R&D innovations and analyzes the drivers and outcomes of non-R&D compared to R&D-based innovations, with the goal of improving science and innovation policy by: examining the concept of innovation from different theoretical perspectives (Chapter 2), creating new measures and improving understanding of existing measures (Chapter 3), developing new models of the innovation process based on knowledge and learning that expand beyond the existing emphasis on R&D inputs (Chapter 4), and different participation of R&D and non-R&D innovations in markets for technology (Chapter 5). The main results show that the relative effectiveness of learning by R&D and non-R&D for innovation is contingent on nature of knowledge, characterized by generality (i.e., high mobility/transferability) and visibility (i.e., tighter links between actions and outcomes), and that non-R&D inventions are less likely to engage in the licensing market, but are more likely to have exclusivity clauses than R&D inventions. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for management of innovation and innovation policy.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate differences in the R&D motivations for manufacturing and service firms. The thesis contributes to existing R&D literature as it proposes a novel approach for the categorization of manufacturing and service firms. Using data from the Statistics Sweden R&D survey, the paper classifies firms according to their income structure, which allows the study to base industry classifications to what best aligns with firms’ actual activities. The methodology consists of Welch’s two- sample t-test in combination with OLS regressions to examine differences in the motivations for manufacturing and service firms. The results suggest that there is a statistically significant difference in the motivations. Manufacturing firms are found to devote a higher proportion of their total R&D investments towards the improvement of existing products. Services were found to devote a greater share of their R&D investments to the development of new processes and to increases in general knowledge-building. Moreover, the study finds a substantial disparity in how firms are classified according to industry classification codes and how they actually earn their revenues and therefore questions the accuracy of conventional industry classification methods.

La thèse traite de la manière dont des firmes multinationales (FMNs) historiquement occidentales, pilotent la dynamique de constitution des compétences nécessaires pour supporter leur stratégie de croissance et d’innovation, lorsque leur marché bascule depuis l’Europe vers l’Asie.La littérature sur le management de l’innovation dans les FMNs propose différents modèles d’organisation globale des processus d’innovation mais n’aborde pas la question de la dynamique de constitution de ces modèles, à partir d’une situation historique et d’une stratégie d’internationalisation spécifique.La thèse traite de cette question de la dynamique à partir d’une recherche interactive menée au sein de l’équipementier automobile mondial Valeo. Elle montre (i) que l’internationalisation en Chine constitue une triple rupture de vitesse, de volume ainsi que de contexte pour la FMN occidentale historique, (ii) que la stratégie mise en œuvre par la FMN en Chine depuis l’Europe permet de gérer la situation à court terme, mais n’est pas particulièrement propice à la constitution des compétences nécessaires aux équipes locales pour devenir progressivement autonomes.A partir d’un diagnostic des difficultés rencontrées, la thèse propose alors (i) au niveau micro, un modèle de reconception des dispositifs de formation dispensés, de manière à optimiser les apprentissages des collaborateurs chinois et favoriser le développement de leurs compétences, (ii) au niveau macro, une trajectoire d’optimisation du développement des compétences de R-I-D (Recherche, Innovation, Développement) dans la firme-réseau global, d’une part en Chine via la formation de formateurs locaux et la constitution de communautés de pratiques, d’autre part globalement via la constitution d’un véhicule organisationnel de type Université d’Entreprise, qui permettrait d’adresser, ensemble, les problématiques d’identification et d’attrait des talents, de montée en compétence, ainsi que d’engagement et de fidélisation. / This thesis focuses on the way multinational corporations (MNCs) develop and manage the required competences to sustain their innovation strategy when their market dynamism is shifting towards Asia.The literature presents various models to organize innovation processes globally but does not answer the question of their dynamic constitution based on a given situation.Drawing upon an interactive research conducted within Valeo – a worldwide automotive supplier – this thesis focuses on that dynamic dimension. It sheds light on how (i) China constitutes a disruptive experience for the Western MNC because of the speed and scale of the phenomenon, as well as the context, (ii) the strategy implemented by the MNC in China from Europe has helped to deal with the difficult situation in the short term, but is not the best way to develop the necessary competences locally to enable the local teams to become autonomous.We thus suggest: (i) at the micro level, a new way of designing training programs that involves shifting from a teaching-centered approach to a learning-centered approach, (ii) at the macro level, a trajectory to improve the constitution of R-I-D (Research, Innovation, Development) competences in the global firm, on the one hand in China via the coaching of local trainers and the development of communities of practice, and on the other hand globally via the constitution of an organizational vehicle such as a Corporate University, to address simultaneously learning and talent management issues – both individually & collectively, locally & globally, in-house & in link with the outside world.

This is a quantitative thesis of the Swedish biotech industry, that intends to study what effect M&A activity has on firms R&D intensity. It is an important question as the market demand is changing rapidly and puts high pressure on companies to constantly deliver new innovations. The study is based on panel data and ordinary least squares regressions. The findings are similar to previous studies, which points towards both positive and negative directions when referring to M&A activity and its impact on R&D intensity. This thesis show lack of statistical significant results when it comes to how R&D intensity (R&D intensity is defined as the ratio of R&D expenditure to total sales) is affected by M&A activity.