IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/hig/fsight/v13y2019i3p51-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Patterns of Investing into Business R&D in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Neo Molotja

    (Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa)

  • Saahier Parker

    (Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa)

  • Precious Mudavanhu

    (Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa)

Abstract

The paper explores the patterns of business investment in research and development (R&D) using evidence from companies in South Africa, in comparison with indicators for a number of other countries. This study covers the period 2006–2016, the studied companies were grouped by the amount of R&D expenditures (BERD), the number of reports on research performance for the first and last years of monitoring. A typical characteristic of private sector R&D activities is the uneven distribution of resources in space and time. The major financial and other assets are concentrated within few large companies from a limited number of industries, while the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises invest in R&D projects only sporadically, for a period of no more than two consequential years. Firms that perform R&D for longer periods invest in R&D incrementally and remain more persistent than enterprises performing less R&D for shorter time periods. In view of the common nature of a number of patterns, these observations suggest different approaches to policies supporting R&D performance in the business sector not only in South Africa, but also in other countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Neo Molotja & Saahier Parker & Precious Mudavanhu, 2019. "Patterns of Investing into Business R&D in South Africa," Foresight and STI Governance (Foresight-Russia till No. 3/2015), National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 13(3), pages 51-60.
    • Handle: RePEc:hig:fsight:v:13:y:2019:i:3:p:51-60
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://foresight-journal.hse.ru/data/2019/10/04/1540164416/5-Molotja-51-60.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julio Rosa & Pierre Mohnen, 2013. "Doing R&D in a Closed or Open Mode: Dynamics and Impacts on Productivity," CIRANO Working Papers 2013s-42, CIRANO.
    2. Cristiano Antonelli & Francesco Crespi & Giuseppe Scellato, 2013. "Internal and external factors in innovation persistence," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(3), pages 256-280, April.
    3. Rosenberg, Nathan, 1976. "On Technological Expectations," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 86(343), pages 523-535, September.
    4. Juan A. Máñez & María E. Rochina‐Barrachina & Amparo Sanchis & Juan A. Sanchis, 2009. "The Role Of Sunk Costs In The Decision To Invest In R&D," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 712-735, December.
    5. Rammer, Christian & Schubert, Torben, 2016. "Concentration on the few? R&D and innovation in German firms 2001 to 2013," ZEW Discussion Papers 16-005, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bianchini, Stefano & Pellegrino, Gabriele, 2019. "Innovation persistence and employment dynamics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1171-1186.
    2. Davide Antonioli & Sandro Montresor, 2021. "Innovation persistence in times of crisis: an analysis of Italian firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1739-1764, April.
    3. Rammer, Christian & Schubert, Torben, 2016. "Concentration on the few? R&D and innovation in German firms 2001 to 2013," ZEW Discussion Papers 16-005, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    4. Guarascio, Dario & Tamagni, Federico, 2019. "Persistence of innovation and patterns of firm growth," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 1493-1512.
    5. Verhoeven, Dennis & Bakker, Jurriën & Veugelers, Reinhilde, 2016. "Measuring technological novelty with patent-based indicators," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 707-723.
    6. Mark Knell & Simone Vannuccini, 2022. "Tools and concepts for understanding disruptive technological change after Schumpeter," Jena Economics Research Papers 2022-005, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    7. Mario Coccia, 2019. "Killer Technologies: the destructive creation in the technical change," Papers 1907.12406, arXiv.org.
    8. Kadri Männasoo & Heili Hein, 2017. "Are R&D companies credit-constrained? Credit frictions during and post-crisis," TUT Economic Research Series 29, Department of Finance and Economics, Tallinn University of Technology.
    9. Martin Woerter, 2014. "Competition and Persistence of R&D," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5-6), pages 469-489, September.
    10. Bodenhorn, Howard, 1999. "An Engine of Growth: Real Bills and Schumpeterian Banking in Antebellum New York," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 278-302, July.
    11. Caroline Roussy & Aude Ridier & Karim Chaïb, 2014. "Adoption d’innovations par les agriculteurs : rôle des perceptions et des préférences," Post-Print hal-01123427, HAL.
    12. Pere Arqué-Castells & Pierre Mohnen, 2015. "Sunk Costs, Extensive R&D Subsidies and Permanent Inducement Effects," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 458-494, September.
    13. Kaifeng Duan & Changcheng Zhang & Junqiang Li & Rui Zhang & Yanwei Zhang, 2020. "Boundary-Spanning Search for Knowledge, Knowledge Reconstruction and the Sustainable Innovation Ability of Agricultural Enterprises: A Chinese Perspective," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-13, February.
    14. Juan Antonio Máñez Castillejo & Dolores Añón Higón & Juan Alberto Sanchis Llopis, 2011. "The role of extensive and intensive margins in explaining corporate R&D growth: Evidence from Spain," Working Papers. Serie EC 2011-05, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    15. Frietsch, Rainer, 2020. "The development of China's R&I system in the past 10 years," Discussion Papers "Innovation Systems and Policy Analysis" 62, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI).
    16. Liu, Duan & Qiu, Qi & Chen, Shou, 2023. "Timeliness of technological innovation and decisions of IPO timing and pricing," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 498-519.
    17. Pål Børing, 2015. "The effects of firms’ R&D and innovation activities on their survival: a competing risks analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 1045-1069, November.
    18. Tavassoli, Sam & Karlsson, Charlie, 2015. "Persistence of various types of innovation analyzed and explained," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1887-1901.
    19. Christopher F Baum & Hans Lööf & Pardis Nabavi, 2019. "Innovation strategies, external knowledge and productivity growth," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 348-367, March.
    20. Gigante, Anna Azzurra, 2013. "Institutional Cognitive Economics: some recent developments," MPRA Paper 48278, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    R&D performance; BERD; concentration; persistence; volatility; business sector; policy; South Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O39 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Other
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hig:fsight:v:13:y:2019:i:3:p:51-60. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Nataliya Gavrilicheva or Mikhail Salazkin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hsecoru.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.