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.

Background: Management control systems (MCS) are used to control organizations and make employees behave and act in the desirable way. Performance measurement (PM) systems one type of MCS and are used to communicate company strategies throughout the organization, motivate the employees to work towards company goals, and measure the outcome. PM systems can be a powerful tool, but if used in the wrong way they can have adverse effects. Aim: This thesis focused on the use of PM systems for management control purposes in research and development (R&D) organisations with the question: How can performance measurement systems be utilized in R&D organizations? Method: The thesis is based on a literature study, complemented by a case study (metric analysis, survey and deep interviews) at a R&D department. The department was investigated at two time points, in between which the PM system was re-designed. In the metric analysis, the performance targets of the PM system were categorized into quantitative-objective, quantitative-subjective and qualitative-subjective targets. Results: The results from the case study were in line with findings from the literature. At study point 2, when the PM system had been re-designed, the employees felt more involved in shaping and influencing the goals. Also the follow-up of the goals was experienced as more implemented at study point two. The types of measured targets had shifted from quantitative to qualitative, including soft values such as team spirit, at study point 2. However, the members did not feel that the goals motivated them at any time point. . Conclusion: In the literature review it was evident from the number of publications that there is a great interest in measuring R&D performance, and that PM systems are an important tool to R&D managers. Just as the company in this case study, each organization needs to analyze its own needs and adopt the PM system thereafter. Moreover, no system should be seen as static, instead it should be continuously evaluated and adjusted to make sure it measures what it is intended to measure and that it does not cause adverse effects on the organization.

No description available.

A mandate is “a business, or element of a business, in which the subsidiary participates and for which it has responsibilities beyond its national market” (Birkinshaw, 1996, p. 467). In the past MNCs set up subsidiaries as miniature replicas of the parent firm but with a changing global market the role of the subsidiary has developed into holding specific mandates. Much has been written about how subsidiaries gain mandates, but in this paper we focus on what causes a subsidiary to lose its mandate. By using AstraZeneca’s R&D unit in Södertälje as a case we examine the loss of mandates and to what extent technological capabilities are connected to the loss of mandates. The paper shows that explaining the loss of mandates is complex and requires consideration of several perspectives. We here provide a starting point for other researchers to continue upon.

Innovation and technological improvements are essential components in generating growth. While this topic is well studied, limited research exists on the effectiveness of innovation and how it drives firm value. The 2008 Financial Crisis serves as a major historical event that significantly changed the economic environment in the US. Centering my analysis around this event, my study empirically examines the efficiency of innovation investments and industry-level stock returns. By taking patents issued as a percentage of R&D outlays, I measure Efficient Innovation—how effective a firm’s R&D is in generating significant innovative change.

This study examines the effects of research and development (R&D) reporting method and managerial knowledge of supervisor compensation on R&D project continuation decisions. The current study employs an experiment with a 2x3 between-participants design, manipulating both R&D reporting method (expense vs. capitalize) and knowledge of supervisor compensation (control group with no knowledge vs. knowledge of non-restricted stock compensation vs. knowledge of restricted stock compensation). Using salient short-term incentives to motivate real earnings management, this study demonstrates that capitalization may result in managers foregoing economically efficient R&D investment opportunities. The results indicate that managerial knowledge of supervisor compensation structure has little influence on managers’ R&D project continuation choices. However, when managers capitalizing R&D expenditures had knowledge that their supervisors received non-restricted (short-term) stock compensation their perceived personal responsibility for the decision significantly decreased. Participants who capitalized R&D expenditures and had knowledge that their supervisor received restricted (long-term) stock compensation rated the importance of making a decision to please their supervisor significantly higher than all other participants. Additionally, participants with knowledge that their supervisors restricted stock compensation were significantly more concerned about the likelihood of negative personal repercussions regardless of R&D reporting method. These findings contribute to the management accounting literature by providing new insights on the influence of knowledge of supervisor compensation on managerial decision making as well as additional insights into the factors that contribute to and limit real earnings management. This study also extends the literature on R&D by providing evidence of the potential for real earnings management when R&D expenditures are capitalized in the absence of personal responsibility.

The thesis summarizes current state of art for the most recent research capabilities of innovation activities analysis. Its main goal is to assess the factors influencing pace and volume of technological innovativeness throughout the European industry and services sectors considering time span 2002-2008 using country-level Community Innovation Surveys and R&D data. It also attempts to evaluate trends in innovation policy instruments targeted to close the gap between Europe and world innovation leaders such as USA. Complex literature overview, basic empirical and extended instruments' analyses lead to recommendations of optimal governments' policy approaches towards different groups of countries divided by level of innovative performance.

Valuation of R&D projects is quite complex due to the substantial uncertainties in a project's life-cycle phases. The sequential nature of R&D projects continuously provides decision-makers with choices regarding whether and when to undertake future potential investment opportunities. This means that when valuing R&D projects decision-makers should take these factors into account. But R&D project usually takes long time to complete processes for commercialization. If the time to complete is longer, it is easier to trigger the crisis for capital shortage. So it seems very important modeling the capital shortage risk to induce the probability of failure in the pricing model. In this thesis we try to apply the analogy of financial securities subject to credit risk of Jarrow & Turnbull (1995) and attempt to value patents with capital shortage risk in an arbitrage free environment using the martingale measure technique. Furthermore, derive closed form formula for patents valuation which makes application easier than that of the theoretic option model. The major findings are: (1) when considering the effect of the failure frequency (capital shortage risk), the patent value will grow rapidly and then converge in the short run, no matter how other parameters incorporated into the robust analysis; (2) when increasing in the volatility of market revenues with synchronized higher volatility of investment cost, the volatility curve will be distorted to be U-shaped. Meanwhile, lower failure frequency could aggravate the decreasing in the option value. Another issue is when the manager exercises the project with multiple underlying assets, where the assets returns are of non-linear correlation particularly in the non-Normal environment. Non-parametric dependence measures may better employed when explaining co-movement. We focus on the value of a (such as resources development) project in general depends on the price of the multiple products; these are usually correlated to some extent. So the project was treated as having a rainbow option, whose underlying asset prices correlate with each other, and also as having uncertainties that decrease according to the project stage. Based on Cherubini and Luciano’s framework (2002), the risk-neutral copula models are derived to figure decision flexibilities out easily. The main framework studies the valuation of a project (call on Max) by determining the joint risk-neutral distribution of the underlying assets (products) using copulas. Monte-Carlo simulations show that the higher default risk and association among the assets and the expected cost to completion contributes the higher risk premium in our model with dependence structure of Archimedean copula family than traditional Black-Scholes environment. / Valuation of R&D projects is quite complex due to the substantial uncertainties in a project's life-cycle phases. The sequential nature of R&D projects continuously provides decision-makers with choices regarding whether and when to undertake future potential investment opportunities. This means that when valuing R&D projects decision-makers should take these factors into account. But R&D project usually takes long time to complete processes for commercialization. If the time to complete is longer, it is easier to trigger the crisis for capital shortage. So it seems very important modeling the capital shortage risk to induce the probability of failure in the pricing model. In this thesis we try to apply the analogy of financial securities subject to credit risk of Jarrow & Turnbull (1995) and attempt to value patents with capital shortage risk in an arbitrage free environment using the martingale measure technique. Furthermore, derive closed form formula for patents valuation which makes application easier than that of the theoretic option model. The major findings are: (1) when considering the effect of the failure frequency (capital shortage risk), the patent value will grow rapidly and then converge in the short run, no matter how other parameters incorporated into the robust analysis; (2) when increasing in the volatility of market revenues with synchronized higher volatility of investment cost, the volatility curve will be distorted to be U-shaped. Meanwhile, lower failure frequency could aggravate the decreasing in the option value. Another issue is when the manager exercises the project with multiple underlying assets, where the assets returns are of non-linear correlation particularly in the non-Normal environment. Non-parametric dependence measures may better employed when explaining co-movement. We focus on the value of a (such as resources development) project in general depends on the price of the multiple products; these are usually correlated to some extent. So the project was treated as having a rainbow option, whose underlying asset prices correlate with each other, and also as having uncertainties that decrease according to the project stage. Based on Cherubini and Luciano’s framework (2002), the risk-neutral copula models are derived to figure decision flexibilities out easily. The main framework studies the valuation of a project (call on Max) by determining the joint risk-neutral distribution of the underlying assets (products) using copulas. Monte-Carlo simulations show that the higher default risk and association among the assets and the expected cost to completion contributes the higher risk premium in our model with dependence structure of Archimedean copula family than traditional Black-Scholes environment.