研发效率、创新条件与企业R&D结构

R&D efficiency,innovative conditions and R&D structure of enterprises

本文从研发效率的视角出发构建了企业R&D结构①的决策模型,通过分析模型发现:研发效率的提高会促进企业R&D结构的改善,而企业内外部创新条件的改善将会正向调节研发效率对企业R&D结构的影响。利用DEA方法测算企业研发效率并基于动态GMM方法对上述结论进行了检验,结果表明:研发效率的提高对企业R&D结构的改善确实起到了显著的促进作用;企业的盈利能力、技术创新强度和所获得的政府支持等创新条件的提高对R&D结构不仅具有直接的改善作用,还通过正向调节研发效率对R&D结构的影响从而对R&D结构的改善产生间接的促进作用。

Innovation has become a key strategy for the Chinese economy to achieve transformation and upgrading in the new era of global competition.Based on this consensus,the Chinese society has put more and more concerns on innovation.Funds and other resources is pouring into innovation,which made the scale of enterprise R&D investment in China witnessed an explosive growth.At the same time,however,a problem that has received little attention is that Chinese companies’R&D activities are overly concentrated on lower-level experimental developments(accounting for nearly 98%),while basic research and applied research related to original innovations account for only 2%.The proportion is significantly lower than the average standards of developed countries and emerging industrial countries,which has largely restricted the original innovation of Chinese enterprises,resulting in lack of endogenous motivation for technological progress and industrial upgrading.Existing research has noticed this worrying phenomenon about R&D structure in Chinese enterprises and tried to analyze its causes.Yet these papers focus mainly on external factors of the enterprise,especially the impact of the policy environment.Compared with the external influence factors of R&D structure,the research on how internal factors affect R&D structure is limited,and the decision mechanism of enterprise R&D structure has not been thoroughly investigated.Internal factors are the basis of corporate R&D activities.Among many internal factors,R&D efficiency is most closely related to R&D decisions.It not only determines the effectiveness of R&D activities,but also has a direct impact on R&D decisions.The essence of R&D efficiency is the input-output efficiency of R&D activities of enterprises,that is,the value of new technologies that can be created by R&D investment of enterprise units.Now most of the existing papers have focused on the impact of R&D efficiency on the scale and intensity of R&D.Research shows that the improvement of R&D efficiency will increase them.So,is R&D efficiency also a key factor in determining the R&D structure?Is its impact restricted by other factors?In order to answer these questions,this paper intends to study the decision-making mechanism of enterprise R&D structure and the adjustment effect of relevant innovation conditions from the perspective of R&D efficiency,and on this basis,proposes suggestions that help to adjust policies for improving R&D structure.Based on the existing research,this paper introduces a technological progress decision model and establishes the assumption that R&D efficiency affects the rate of technological progress of enterprises.On this basis,the decision model of the R&D structure of the enterprise is constructed.Through the analysis of the model,we found that the improvement of R&D efficiency will promote the improvement of the R&D structure of the enterprise,that is,the R&D efficiency of the enterprise has a positive impact on the R&D structure.The higher the R&D efficiency of an enterprise is,the higher the proportion of basic research and application research in its R&D investment.Further analysis also found that the improvement of internal and external innovation conditions will positively adjust the impact of R&D efficiency on R&D structure.Based on the panel data of large and medium-sized enterprises in China and using dynamic GMM method,we have tested the above conclusions.Based on the DEA(Data Envelopment Analysis)method,the R&D efficiency of China’s major industrial sectors was measured.Internal and external factors that may affect the R&D structure of the enterprise are introduced into the system as control variables,including the profitability of the enterprise,the degree of policy support,the intensity of technological innovation,and the ownership characteristics.The results show that the improvement of R&D efficiency has a significantly positive effect on the improvement of R&D structure;the profitability,policy support and technological innovation intensity of the enterprise not only have a direct positive effect on the improvement of R&D structure,but also positively adjust the effect of R&D efficiency on R&D structure.While the ownership characteristics have a direct effect on R&D structure,but do not significantly adjust the impact of R&D efficiency.The conclusions of this paper have important implications for improving the unsatisfactory status of R&D structures in Chinese enterprises:First,the low efficiency of R&D is the root cause of the imbalance of the R&D structure of enterprises.Due to the long-term implementation of the factor-driven growth strategy,Chinese enterprises’innovation resources and innovation transformation capabilities are seriously insufficient,resulting in low research and development efficiency.Most Chinese companies lack the research capabilities to carry out high-level innovation,and they are unable to use these results of scientific research and innovation into real business benefits.This will inevitably lead to a lack of enthusiasm for high-level innovations such as basic research and applied research.Therefore,the key to improving the R&D structure of enterprises is to improve the R&D efficiency of enterprises:on the one hand,the enterprises should build up high-level scientific research facilities and introduce high-level scientific research talents to fill the shortcomings of enterprises in terms of hardware and human capital;on the other hand,the enterprises should be in line with innovative enterprises in the internal innovation mechanism,especially to improve its management mechanisms to maximize the inherent innovation vitality of the enterprises.Second,the R&D structure is subject to a variety of innovation conditions,and only comprehensive improvement of internal and external innovation conditions can ensure the continuous improvement of the R&D structure.From the empirical research of this paper,the government should strengthen the financial support for original innovation(but it should be noted that the government should pay attention to the R&D efficiency and other internal innovation factors when providing support).For enterprises with low R&D efficiency and low innovation orientation,the government should not blindly provide support,but should concentrate resources to support those enterprises with strong innovation demand and innovative willingness but weaker profitability.In addition,the government should further promote China’s marketization process and promote the rational allocation of resources.In the Chinese market environment nowadays,large state-owned enterprises with more resources often lack the intention to innovate due to administrative monopoly advantages,while innovative SMEs are unable to innovate due to limited resources.'Reform'is an opportunity to eliminate administrative monopolies existing in some industries and introduce more market competition mechanisms,which will be beneficial to the improvement of corporate R&D structure and the cultivation of long-term competitiveness.