When Does In-house Basic Research Increase Firms’ Technological Performance?
This paper extends prior empirical research on corporate basic research in two ways. First, analyze to what extent the effect of basic research sourced from outside the firm is leveraged by self-performed basic research, as a direct evaluation of the role of absorptive capacity. Second, we analyze to what extent firms build on the results of their own basic research in their applied technological activities, and how this ultimately impacts their technological performance. In a fixed-effect panel data analysis of the patent and publication activity of 33 of the largest R&D spending US, EU and Japanese pharmaceutical firms, we find that firms that engage in internal basic research increase their technological performance, in particular when these activities are undertaken in collaboration with universities. The exploitation of external basic research also affects technological performance positively, with a larger effect for firms conducting more in-house basic research, which confirms that externally available basic science is not a perfect public good. Finally, we find that firms who purposefully align their basic and applied research activities increase their technological performance.
Bart Leten Stijn Kelchtermans René Belderbos
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) Hogeschool Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) UNU-MERIT (The Netherlands) Maastricht University (The Neth
国际会议
北京
英文
1-8
2011-07-01（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）