Rene Belderbos

Complementarity in R&D Cooperation Strategies

This paper assesses the performance effects of simultaneous engagement in R&D cooperation with different partners (competitors, clients, suppliers, and universities and research institutes). We test whether these different types of R&D cooperation are complements in improving productivity. The results suggest that the joint adoption of cooperation strategies could be either beneficial or detrimental to firm performance, depending on firm size and specific strategy combinations. Customer cooperation helps to increase market acceptance and diffusion of product innovations and enhances the impact ofcompetitor and university cooperation. On the other hand, smaller firms also face diseconomies in pursuing multiple R&D cooperation strategies, which may stem from higher costs and complexity of simultaneously managing multiple partnerships with different innovation objectives.

Overseas Innovations by Japanese Firms: An Analysis of Patent and Subsidiary Data

This paper examines patent and overseas subsidiary data of 231 large and medium-sized Japanese electronics firms to analyse the characteristics and determinants of foreign research and development (R&D) activities. A number of medium-sized firms have highly internationalised R&D operations, whereas most large Japanese electronics firms remain strongly dependent on domestic R&D. Statistical analysis of the firm-level determinants of the number of overseas innovations established positive and significant effects of R&D intensity, export intensity, overseas manufacturing intensity, operating experience in greenfield manufacturing subsidiaries overseas, and the relative importance of acquisitions in overseas manufacturing, while a nonlinear relationship between firm size and overseas innovations was found. The results support the notions of a technology exploitation motive for overseas R&D as well as a substantial additional role for a technology sourcing motive. Support is also found for the hypothesis that part of the explanation for the low degree of R&D internationalisation of Japanese firms must be sought in their relatively late and rapid overseas expansion since the mid-1980s.

The Productivity Effects of Internal and External R&D: Evidence from a Dynamic Panel Data Model

We examine the impact of internal and external R&D on labor productivity in a 6-year panel of Dutch manufacturing firms. We apply a dynamic linear panel data model that allows for decreasing or increasing returns to scale in internal and external R&D and for economies of scope. We find complementarity between internal and external R&D, with a positive impact of external R&D only evident in case of sufficient internal R&D. These findings confirm the role of internal R&D in enhancing absorptive capacity and hence the effective utilization of external knowledge. The scope economies due the combination of internal and external R&D are accentuated by decreasing results to scale at high levels of internal and external R&D. The analysis indicates that on average productivity grows by increasing the share of external R&D in total R&D.

Technological Activities and Their Impact on the Financial Performance of the Firm: Exploitation and Exploration within and between Firms

This paper analyzes the consequences for financial performance of technology strategies categorized along two dimensions: (1) explorative versus exploitative and (2) solitary versus collaborative. The financial performance implications of firms’ positioning along these two dimensions has important managerial implications, but has received only limited attention in prior studies. Drawing on organizational learning theory and technology alliances literature, a set of hypotheses on the performance implications of firms’ technology strategies are derived. These hypotheses are tested empirically on a panel dataset (1996-2003) of 168 R&D-intensive firms based in Japan, the US and Europe and situated in five different industries (chemicals, pharmaceuticals, ICT, electronics, non-electrical machinery). Patent data are used to construct indicators of explorative versus exploitative technological activities (activities in new or existing technology domains) and collaborative versus solitary technological activities (joint versus single patent ownership). The financial performance of firms is measured via a market value indicator: Tobin’s Q index.

Antidumping and tariff jumping: Japanese firms' DFI in the European Union and the United States

Antidumping and Tariff Jumping: Japanese Firms’ DFI in the European Union and the United States. — The relationship between EU and US antidumping measures and direct foreign investment (DFI) is examined through a micro-econometrical analysis of Japanese firms’ plant establishments in the electronics industry. After controlling for firm and industry capabilities, market size, transport cost, and product cycle effects, antidumping actions are found to have a substantial positive effect on Japanese DFL EU antidumping is roughly twice as likely to lead to tariffjumping DFI as US antidumping, which is ascribed to marked differences in antidumping procedures. Tariff jumping makes antidumping ineffective in combatting anticompetitive behaviour by foreign firms and may result in increased market concentration.ZusammenfassungAntidumpingmaßnahmen und Überspringen der Zollmauern: Direktinvestitionen japanischer Firmen in der EU und den USA. — Der Verfasser untersucht die Beziehung zwischen Antidumpingmaßnahmen der EU und der USA und ausländischen Direktinvestitionen mit Hilfe einer mikro-ökonometrischen Analyse der Auslandsinvestitionen japanischer Firmen aus der Elektronikbranche. Nach Berücksichtigung einiger Variablen (z. B. Marktgröße, Transportkosten und Produktzyklus) zeigt sich, daß Antidumpingmaßnahmen einen beträchtlichen positiven Einfluß auf japanische Direktinvestitionen im Ausland haben. Derartige Maßnahmen seitens der EU führen ungefähr doppelt so oft zu zollüberspringenden ausländischen Direktinvestitionen wie US-Antidumpingmaßnahmen, was mit deutlichen Unterschieden in den Antidumpingverfahren erklärt wird. Antidumpingmaßnahmen werden unwirksam im Kampf gegen wettbewerbswidriges Verhalten ausländischer Unternehmen, wenn die Zollmauern übersprungen werden, und können die Marktkonzentration verstärken.

Strategic R&D Location by Multinational Firms: Spillovers, Technology Sourcing, and Competition

We analyse strategic interaction in R&D internationalization decisions by two multinational firms competing both abroad and in their home markets and examine different incentives for foreign R&D faced by technology leaders and technology laggards. The model takes into account the impact of local inter-firm R&D spillovers, (non-costless) international intra-firm transfer of knowledge, and the notion that internal R&D increases the effectiveness of incoming spillovers. Greater efficiency of intra-firm transfers and greater spillovers increases the attractiveness of home R&D to the technology leader. The lagging firm in contrast increases the share of foreign R&D as overseas technology sourcing becomes more effective. Greater product market competition encourages the leading firm to engage in foreign R&D to capture a larger share of profits on the foreign market, while laggards concentrate more R&D at home to defend their home market position. The country with a stricter intellectual property rights regime attracts a larger share of R&D by both leader and laggard.

Internal and External R&D: Complements or Substitutes? Evidence from a Dynamic Panel Data Model

We examine the impact of internal and external R&D on labor productivity in a 6-year panel of 304 innovating firms. We apply a dynamic linear panel data model that allows for decreasing returns to scale in internal and external R&D with a non-linear approximation of changes in the knowledge stock. We find complementarity between internal and external R&D, with a positive impact of external R&D only evident in case of sufficient internal R&D. The findings confirm the role of internal R&D in enhancing absorptive capacity and hence the effective utilization of external knowledge. These results suggest that empirical studies examining complementarities between continuously measured practices should adopt more general non-linear specifications to allow for correct inferences.

Persistence of, and Interrelation Between, Horizontal and Vertical Technology Alliances

The authors explore to what extent there is persistence in, and interrelation between, alliance strategies with different partner types (customers, suppliers, competitors). In a panel data set of innovation-active firms in the Netherlands from 1996 to 2004, the authors find persistence in alliance strategies with all three types of partners, but customer alliance strategies are more persistent than supplier alliance strategies and competitor alliance strategies. A positive interrelation between customer and supplier alliance strategies and a high persistence of joint supplier and customer alliance strategies are consistent with the advantages of value chain integration in innovation efforts. Prior engagement in horizontal (competitor) alliances increases the propensity to engage in vertical alliance strategies, but this effect occurs only with a longer lag. Overall, the authors’ findings suggest that alliance strategies with different partner types are both heterogeneous in persistence and (temporally) interrelated. This suggests that intertemporal relationships between different types of alliances may be as important as their simultaneous relationship in alliance portfolios.

Foreign and Domestic R&D Investment

A considerable share of R&D investment is due to multinational firms that simultaneously operate R&D bases at home and abroad. We develop a simple model of foreign and domestic R&D investment and test the models predictions on a sample of 146 Japanese multinational firms’ R&D investments in Japan and the United States in 1996. The empirical results confirm that the foreign to domestic R&D ratio depends on relative technological opportunities and relative demand conditions, with foreign research expenditures responding to technological opportunity and foreign development expenditures responding to demand.

Does Excellence in Academic Research Attract Foreign R&D?

We examine the role of host countries’ academic research strengths in global R&D location decisions by multinational firms. While we expect that a firm’s propensity to perform R&D in a host country increases with the strength of local academic research, firms are expected to be heterogeneously positioned to benefit from academic research strengths due to differences in the capacity to absorb and utilize scientific knowledge. We find support for these conjectures in an analysis of foreign R&D activities in 40 host countries and 30 technology fields by 176 leading European, US and Japanese firms during the periods 1995-1998 and 1999-2002. Controlling for a wide range of host country factors, the number of relevant ISI publications by scientists based in the host country has a substantial positive impact on the propensity to conduct foreign R&D. The effect of academic research is significantly larger for firms with a stronger science orientation in R&D - as indicated by citations to scientific literature in prior patents. For host countries with a strong relevant science base, this greater responsiveness of science oriented firms more than offsets a generally greater inclination to concentrate R&D at home. The findings appear robust across a variety of specifications.