IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/ijimxx/v23y2019i05ns136391961950049x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

R&D Dynamics And Firm Growth: The Importance Of R&D Persistency In The Economic Crisis

Author

Listed:
  • HAYOUNG PARK

    (Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program (TEMEP), Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea)

  • TAEWON KANG

    (Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program (TEMEP), Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea2Institute of Engineering Research, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea)

  • JEONG-DONG LEE

    (Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program (TEMEP), Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea)

Abstract

There has been a lot of interest in R&D dynamics, including the persistency and volatility of R&D investment. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting the impact of R&D dynamics on firm growth in the context of an economic crisis. This study examines the effects of R&D dynamics on firm growth during and after the global financial crisis of 2008–2009. Based on firm-level data, we construct a balanced panel for 1,137 firms in the global petrochemical industry. Our findings indicate that firms with R&D persistency show higher growth during and after the crisis, regardless of firm size. R&D persistency has a higher impact on firm growth in large firms than in smaller ones. In addition, R&D persistency has greater influence than the level of R&D investment. Firms should pursue non-cyclical and consistent R&D strategies with a long-term perspective, especially in high uncertainty conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Hayoung Park & Taewon Kang & Jeong-Dong Lee, 2019. "R&D Dynamics And Firm Growth: The Importance Of R&D Persistency In The Economic Crisis," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(05), pages 1-24, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:ijimxx:v:23:y:2019:i:05:n:s136391961950049x
    DOI: 10.1142/S136391961950049X
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S136391961950049X
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S136391961950049X?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bartz, Wiebke & Winkler, Adalbert, 2016. "Flexible or fragile? The growth performance of small and young businesses during the global financial crisis — Evidence from Germany," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 196-215.
    2. Nishimura, Kiyohiko G. & Nakajima, Takanobu & Kiyota, Kozo, 2005. "Does the natural selection mechanism still work in severe recessions?: Examination of the Japanese economy in the 1990s," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 53-78, September.
    3. Alex Coad, 2009. "The Growth of Firms," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13424.
    4. Nick Bloom, 2007. "Uncertainty and the Dynamics of R&D," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 250-255, May.
    5. Bronwyn Hall, 2004. "The financing of research and development," Chapters, in: Anthony Bartzokas & Sunil Mani (ed.), Financial Systems, Corporate Investment in Innovation, and Venture Capital, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Lilien, Gary L. & Srinivasan, Raji, 2010. "Marketing spending strategy in recessions," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 181-182.
    7. Massimo G. Colombo & Evila Piva & Anita Quas & Cristina Rossi-Lamastra, 2016. "How high-tech entrepreneurial ventures cope with the global crisis: changes in product innovation and internationalization strategies," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(7), pages 647-671, October.
    8. Howard Chan & Robert Faff & Philip Gharghori & Yew Ho, 2007. "The relation between R&D intensity and future market returns: does expensing versus capitalization matter?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 25-51, July.
    9. Kolasa, Marcin & Rubaszek, Michal & Taglioni, Daria, 2010. "Firms in the great global recession: The role of foreign ownership and financial dependence," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 341-357, December.
    10. 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.
    11. Hausman, Jerry A & Taylor, William E, 1981. "Panel Data and Unobservable Individual Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1377-1398, November.
    12. Michele Cincera & Julien Ravet & Reinhilde Veugelers, 2016. "The sensitivity of R&D investments to cash flows: comparing young and old EU and US leading innovators," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 304-320, April.
    13. Coad, Alex, 2007. "Testing the principle of `growth of the fitter': The relationship between profits and firm growth," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 370-386, September.
    14. Bottazzi, Giulio & Dosi, Giovanni & Lippi, Marco & Pammolli, Fabio & Riccaboni, Massimo, 2001. "Innovation and corporate growth in the evolution of the drug industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(7), pages 1161-1187, July.
    15. Pakes, Ariel & Nitzan, Shmuel, 1983. "Optimum Contracts for Research Personnel, Research Employment, and the Establishment of "Rival" Enterprises," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(4), pages 345-365, October.
    16. Agustí Segarra & Mercedes Teruel, 2014. "High-growth firms and innovation: an empirical analysis for Spanish firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 805-821, December.
    17. Paul A. Geroski & Stephen J. Machin & Christopher F. Walters, 1997. "Corporate Growth and Profitability," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 171-189, June.
    18. Riley, Rebecca & Rosazza-Bondibene, Chiara & Young, Garry, 2014. "The Financial Crisis, Bank Lending and UK Productivity: Sectoral and Firm-Level Evidence," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 228, pages 17-34, May.
    19. Barge-Gil, Andrés & López, Alberto, 2014. "R&D determinants: Accounting for the differences between research and development," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9), pages 1634-1648.
    20. Celeste Varum & Vera Rocha, 2013. "Employment and SMEs during crises," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 9-25, January.
    21. Nick Bloom & Stephen Bond & John Van Reenen, 2007. "Uncertainty and Investment Dynamics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 74(2), pages 391-415.
    22. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:2:p:623-650 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Tim Swift, 2013. "R&D Expenditure Volatility And Firm Performance: Organizational And Environmental Contexts," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 10(04), pages 1-21.
    24. Hud, Martin & Hussinger, Katrin, 2015. "The impact of R&D subsidies during the crisis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1844-1855.
    25. Giuseppe Moscarini & Fabien Postel-Vinay, 2012. "The Contribution of Large and Small Employers to Job Creation in Times of High and Low Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2509-2539, October.
    26. Brown, James R. & Petersen, Bruce C., 2011. "Cash holdings and R&D smoothing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 694-709, June.
    27. Hyuk Chung, 2017. "R&D investment, cash holdings and the financial crisis: evidence from Korean corporate data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(55), pages 5638-5650, November.
    28. repec:bla:jindec:v:45:y:1997:i:2:p:171-89 is not listed on IDEAS
    29. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability of Competitive Advantage," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1504-1511, December.
    30. Mudambi, Ram & Swift, Tim, 2011. "Proactive R&D management and firm growth: A punctuated equilibrium model," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 429-440, April.
    31. Himmelberg, Charles P & Petersen, Bruce C, 1994. "R&D and Internal Finance: A Panel Study of Small Firms in High-Tech Industries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(1), pages 38-51, February.
    32. Del Canto, Jesus Galende & Gonzalez, Isabel Suarez, 1999. "A resource-based analysis of the factors determining a firm's R&D activities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 891-905, November.
    33. 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.
    34. Varum, Celeste Amorim & Rocha, Vera Catarina Barros, 2011. "Do foreign and domestic firms behave any different during economic slowdowns?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 48-59, February.
    35. Kang, Taewon & Baek, Chulwoo & Lee, Jeong-Dong, 2017. "The persistency and volatility of the firm R&D investment: Revisited from the perspective of technological capability," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(9), pages 1570-1579.
    36. Jean-Marc Fournier & Isabell Koske & Isabelle Wanner & Vera Zipperer, 2013. "The Price of Oil – Will it Start Rising Again?," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1031, OECD Publishing.
    37. Bronwyn H. Hall & Francesca Lotti & Jacques Mairesse, 2013. "Evidence on the impact of R&D and ICT investments on innovation and productivity in Italian firms," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(3), pages 300-328, April.
    38. Giulio Bottazzi & Elena Cefis & Giovanni Dosi, 2002. "Corporate growth and industrial structures: some evidence from the Italian manufacturing industry," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(4), pages 705-723, August.
    39. Jeffrey G. Covin & Dennis P. Slevin, 1989. "Strategic management of small firms in hostile and benign environments," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 75-87, January.
    40. Chang-Yang Lee, 2003. "A simple theory and evidence on the determinants of firm R&D," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(5), pages 385-395.
    41. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/59cr4u3mmr9pobrceptvua5g8c is not listed on IDEAS
    42. J. O. S. Wilson & J. M. Williams, 2000. "The size and growth of banks: evidence from four European countries," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(9), pages 1101-1109.
    43. Lee, Sanghoon, 2014. "The relationship between growth and profit: evidence from firm-level panel data," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 1-11.
    44. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and the Sustainability of Competitive Advantage: Reply," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1514-1514, December.
    45. Higson, C. & Holly, S. & Kattuman, P., 2002. "The cross-sectional dynamics of the US business cycle: 1950-1999," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 26(9-10), pages 1539-1555, August.
    46. Amore, Mario Daniele, 2015. "Companies learning to innovate in recessions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(8), pages 1574-1583.
    47. Segarra Blasco, Agustí, 1958- & Teruel, Mercedes, 2014. "High-growth firms and innovation: an empirical analysis for Spanish firms," Working Papers 2072/228402, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    48. Marc Cowling, 2004. "The Growth -- Profit Nexus," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-9, February.
    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. Kang, Taewon & Baek, Chulwoo & Lee, Jeong-Dong, 2017. "The persistency and volatility of the firm R&D investment: Revisited from the perspective of technological capability," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(9), pages 1570-1579.
    2. Alessandro Arrighetti & Fabio Landini & Andrea Lasagni, 2021. "Swimming upstream throughout the turmoil: Evidence on firm growth during the great recession," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 68(3), pages 322-344, July.
    3. Canarella, Giorgio & Miller, Stephen M., 2018. "The determinants of growth in the U.S. information and communication technology (ICT) industry: A firm-level analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 259-271.
    4. Z. Jun Lin & Shengqiang Liu & Fangcheng Sun, 2017. "The Impact of Financing Constraints and Agency Costs on Corporate R&D Investment: Evidence from China," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 17(1), pages 3-42, March.
    5. Liu, Duan & Li, Zhiyuan & He, Hongbo & Hou, Wenxuan, 2021. "The determinants of R&D smoothing with asset sales: Evidence from R&D-intensive firms in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 76-93.
    6. Yannis Caloghirou & Ioannis Giotopoulos & Alexandra Kontolaimou & Aggelos Tsakanikas, 2022. "Inside the black box of high-growth firms in a crisis-hit economy: corporate strategy, employee human capital and R&D capabilities," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 1319-1345, September.
    7. Bartz, Wiebke & Winkler, Adalbert, 2016. "Flexible or fragile? The growth performance of small and young businesses during the global financial crisis — Evidence from Germany," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 196-215.
    8. Daria Ciriaci & Pietro Moncada-Paternò-Castello & Peter Voigt, 2016. "Innovation and job creation: a sustainable relation?," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 6(2), pages 189-213, August.
    9. Alex Coad & Werner Hölzl, 2012. "Firm Growth: Empirical Analysis," Chapters, in: Michael Dietrich & Jackie Krafft (ed.), Handbook on the Economics and Theory of the Firm, chapter 24, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Seungkyu Yoo & Jaejun Kim, 2015. "The Dynamic Relationship between Growth and Profitability under Long-Term Recession: The Case of Korean Construction Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-17, December.
    11. Marco Capasso & Tania Treibich & Bart Verspagen, 2015. "The medium-term effect of R&D on firm growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 39-62, June.
    12. SooGeun Ahn & Jeewhan Yoon & YoungJun Kim, 2018. "The innovation activities of small and medium-sized enterprises and their growth: quantile regression analysis and structural equation modeling," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 316-342, April.
    13. Juan Federico & Joan-Lluis Capelleras, 2015. "The heterogeneous dynamics between growth and profits: the case of young firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 231-253, February.
    14. José García-Quevedo & Gabriele Pellegrino & Maria Savona, 2017. "Reviving demand-pull perspectives: The effect of demand uncertainty and stagnancy on R&D strategy," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 41(4), pages 1087-1122.
    15. Daniele Moschella & Federico Tamagni & Xiaodan Yu, 2019. "Persistent high-growth firms in China’s manufacturing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 573-594, March.
    16. Kang, Taewon & Baek, Chulwoo & Lee, Jeong-Dong, 2019. "Effects of knowledge accumulation strategies through experience and experimentation on firm growth," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 169-181.
    17. Cho, Joe (Joonghi) & Kim, Heejung, 2024. "Does a consistently capitalized R&D ratio improve information effects of capitalized development expenditures?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    18. Goedhuys-Degelin M.D.L. & Sleuwaegen L., 2015. "Human capital, innovation and the distribution of firm growth rates," MERIT Working Papers 2015-013, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    19. Habermann, Harald, 2017. "Business takeovers and firm growth: Empirical evidence from a German panel," Working Papers 01/17, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    20. Grillitsch, Markus & Schubert, Torben & Srholec, Martin, 2019. "Knowledge base combinations and firm growth," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 234-247.

    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:wsi:ijimxx:v:23:y:2019:i:05:n:s136391961950049x. 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: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/ijim/ijim.shtml .

    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.