IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-07l20007.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Innovation, Firm Size, and R&D Search

Author

Listed:
  • Jose Plehn-Dujowich

    (University at Buffalo)

Abstract

We present evidence that small firms perform two to four times more innovations per dollar of R&D than large firms. We propose a search theory of R&D that accounts for the evidence. A firm incurs R&D expenses until it has discovered a level of R&D productivity that is sufficiently great to warrant stopping the search. We show that because the large number of R&D projects run by a large firm becomes a substitute for enhanced R&D productivity, the average R&D productivity of a firm is decreasing in firm size.

Suggested Citation

  • Jose Plehn-Dujowich, 2007. "Innovation, Firm Size, and R&D Search," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 12(18), pages 1-8.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-07l20007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/pubs/EB/2007/Volume12/EB-07L20007A.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Holmstrom, Bengt, 1989. "Agency costs and innovation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 305-327, December.
    2. John Bound & Clint Cummins & Zvi Griliches & Bronwyn H. Hall & Adam B. Jaffe, 1984. "Who Does R&D and Who Patents?," NBER Chapters, in: R&D, Patents, and Productivity, pages 21-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Bronwyn H. Hall & Adam B. Jaffe & Manuel Trajtenberg, 2001. "The NBER Patent Citation Data File: Lessons, Insights and Methodological Tools," NBER Working Papers 8498, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Zvi Griliches, 1984. "R&D, Patents, and Productivity," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gril84-1, May.
    5. Bronwyn H. Hall & Adam Jaffe & Manuel Trajtenberg, 2005. "Market Value and Patent Citations," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(1), pages 16-38, Spring.
    6. Klepper, Steven, 1996. "Entry, Exit, Growth, and Innovation over the Product Life Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 562-583, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christian Rammer & Dirk Czarnitzki & Alfred Spielkamp, 2009. "Innovation success of non-R&D-performers: substituting technology by management in SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 35-58, June.

    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. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:12:y:2007:i:18:p:1-8 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Boubakri, Narjess & Chkir, Imed & Saadi, Samir & Zhu, Hui, 2021. "Does national culture affect corporate innovation? International evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    3. Kim, Hyung-Tae & Lee, Seungwon & Park, Sung-Jin & Lee, Brandon, 2019. "Audit fees and corporate innovation: Auditors' response to corporate innovation," MPRA Paper 101081, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Coad, Alex & Rao, Rekha, 2008. "Innovation and firm growth in high-tech sectors: A quantile regression approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 633-648, May.
    5. William, Mbanyele & Fengrong, Wang, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and industry innovation: Cross country evidence," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 208-228.
    6. Minniti, Antonio, 2011. "Knowledge appropriability, firm size, and growth," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 438-454, September.
    7. Sheikh, Shahbaz, 2018. "The impact of market competition on the relation between CEO power and firm innovation," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 36-50.
    8. Choi, Mincheol & Lee, Chang-Yang, 2021. "Technological diversification and R&D productivity: The moderating effects of knowledge spillovers and core-technology competence," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    9. Christophe Pennetier & Karan Girotra & Jürgen Mihm, 2019. "R&D Spending: Dynamic or Persistent?," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 21(3), pages 636-657, July.
    10. T. Ravichandran & Shu Han & Sunil Mithas, 2017. "Mitigating Diminishing Returns to R&D: The Role of Information Technology in Innovation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 812-827, December.
    11. Manuel Ammann & Philipp Horsch & David Oesch, 2016. "Competing with Superstars," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(10), pages 2842-2858, October.
    12. He, Jie (Jack) & Tian, Xuan, 2013. "The dark side of analyst coverage: The case of innovation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 856-878.
    13. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Oriani, Raffaele, 2006. "Does the market value R&D investment by European firms? Evidence from a panel of manufacturing firms in France, Germany, and Italy," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 971-993, September.
    14. Sakaki, Hamid & Jory, Surendranath Rakesh, 2019. "Institutional investors' ownership stability and firms' innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 10-22.
    15. Gugler, Klaus, 2003. "Corporate governance, dividend payout policy, and the interrelation between dividends, R&D, and capital investment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 1297-1321, July.
    16. Lei Gao & Leo L. Yang & Joseph H. Zhang, 2016. "Corporate patents, R&D success, and tax avoidance," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 1063-1096, November.
    17. Laarni Bulan & Paroma Sanyal, 2011. "Incentivizing managers to build innovative firms," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 267-283, May.
    18. Luisito Bertinelli & Arnaud Bourgain & Florian Léon, 2020. "Corruption and tax compliance: evidence from small retailers in Bamako, Mali," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(5), pages 366-370, March.
    19. Chakraborty, Atreya & Rzakhanov, Zaur & Sheikh, Shahbaz, 2014. "Antitakeover provisions, managerial entrenchment and firm innovation," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 30-43.
    20. Klette, Tor Jakob & Griliches, Zvi, 2000. "Empirical Patterns of Firm Growth and R&D Investment: A Quality Ladder Model Interpretation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(463), pages 363-387, April.
    21. Kornelius Kraft & Jörg Stank & Ralf Dewenter, 2011. "Co-determination and innovation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 35(1), pages 145-172.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-07l20007. 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: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.