اثر سرمایه گذاری R & D بر ارزش شرکت: بررسی صنایع تولیدی و خدماتی ایالات متحده

We examine the association between investment in research and development (R&D) and market value among US firms over an 18-year period covering 26,500 firm-years. We study the R&D investment–firm performance linkage in both manufacturing and service industries to evaluate differences in their relative contributions to firm value. Finally, we investigate the impact of a major economic disruption such as the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001 (popularly known as 9/11) on R&D investment relative to the performance of a firm. After controlling for firm size, industry concentration, and leverage, we find that R&D investment positively affects firm performance. More specifically, R&D investment in the manufacturing sector contributes more positively to firm market value than in the service sector pre-9/11. However, the service sector shows stronger R&D investment–market performance association post-9/11 than manufacturing firms. Consistent with the resource-based literature, the results show that investment in R&D contributes positively to firm performance for both manufacturing and service firms, despite major economic disruptions.

As technology and innovation seem to be synergistic, a great deal of attention has been given to the importance of assessing the contribution of R&D investment to firm performance. Hall and Bagchi-Sen (2007) used R&D intensity (percent of firm revenue expended on R&D) to measure commitment to innovation in US biotechnology firms. In an era of global competition, there is general agreement that technological competitiveness is vital for the economic well-being of a company. The decisions made by management today regarding R&D investment can influence the viability, growth, and competitiveness of an organization in future periods (Morbey, 1988). While R&D projects are typically associated with high uncertainty and no immediate payoff, these investments have shown to create future opportunities that are both profitable and capable of providing the company with distinct competitive advantage. Due to increasing competition, firms are systematically pushed to search for growth opportunities in the market and to get to market before their competitors. This implies that they should innovate at an extraordinary pace by developing and improving new products and services, and by generating ideas expressly intended to become commercially viable and profitable business ventures. The answer to all the challenges seems to rely on innovation, a by-product of R&D investment. The evidence, therefore suggests that R&D investment creates value for the firm because it provides competitive advantage through differentiation strategies that produces new and better products and services.

Descriptive statistics for key variables used in the study are summarized in Table 1 and Table 2. The sample consists of a total of 26,499 firms gathered over an 18-year period (1990 through 2007). The manufacturing firms (Table 1) accounts for 76% of the sample with the chemical and allied product category accounting for 29.25% of all manufacturing firms. The service firms (Table 2) account for 24% of all firms with the business services group accounting for 74% of the service firms. Total R&D expenditures averaged $1.285 billion for manufacturing and $217 million for service, implying that manufacturing outspent service by a ratio of about 6-to-1 in R&D expenditures. This provides anecdotal evidence that manufacturing has greater intensity in R&D than service.