اثرات بهره وری از تحقیقات بنیادی در صنایع با تکنولوژی پایین و با تکنولوژی بالا

R&D encompasses plenty of activities which are usually summarized under the terms of basic research, applied research and development. Although basic research is often associated with low appropriability it provides the fundamental basis for subsequent applied research and development. Especially in the high-tech sector basic research capabilities are an essential component for a firm's success. We use firm-level panel data stemming from Belgian R&D surveys and apply a production function approach which shows that basic research exhibits a premium on a firm's output when compared to applied research and development. When we split the sample into high-tech and low-tech companies, we find a large premium of basic research for firms in high-tech industries, but no premium in low-tech sectors.

It has been widely acknowledged by the literature that research and development have positive effects on firm performance (see Hall et al., 2010 for a recent survey). However, the term R&D is a rather complex construct, since R&D encompasses plenty of activities. According to the definition of the Frascati Manual (1993) which frames the methodology for collecting and using statistics about R&D in OECD countries, the term R&D covers three activities: basic research, applied research and experimental development. Basic research can be understood as very early stage research which is designed to build a knowledge base in order to understand fundamental principles. It is driven by a scientist's curiosity or interest in a scientific question. Contrary to applied research and experimental development which are more commercially orientated, basic research is phenomena oriented, that is, it barely helps practitioners with their everyday concern. Nevertheless, it stimulates new ways of thinking which may lead to generation of pioneering and revolutionary ideas, concepts and applications. For instance, modern computer technology could not exist without pure mathematical research, at that point of time undertaken without any ulterior motive of practical applications in computer science. Firms conducting basic research broaden their knowledge base that provides the fundamental basis for subsequent applied research and development. Thus basic research enables a firm to exploit rapidly useful scientific and technological knowledge through their own innovations (Cohen and Levinthal, 1989, Cohen and Levinthal, 1990 and Rosenberg, 1990). There are several studies (e.g. Mansfield, 1980 and Griliches, 1986) which have already demonstrated that corporate basic research is important for a firm's performance.

Our results have shown that there exists a premium for basic research on a firm's net output. Moreover, dividing our sample into firms based in low and high-tech industries indicates that there is a premium effect for firms operating in the high-tech sector which is more than twice as high as the effect we have found for basic research in the full sample. Additionally, our regression results reveal that there is neither a premium nor a discount effect of basic research in the low-tech industries.