Abstract
It is supposed that large deregulation to be changed of a market rule has an influence on R & D activity of a company, but there are few studies that described the relations. In this research, concerning with energy sector firms, influences of the deregulation on the R & D activities of the electricity/gas companies will be analyzed. The structure change of the R & D activity is formulated by the "routine" of the company. If the R & D activity is based on the Markov process, the routine of the company is quantified by a transition probability matrix, and the change of the routine can be visualized by a limit probability distribution. The change of the R & D routine is compared between before and after the deregulation, also between the electricity and gas companies, with using the method of the Markov process applied to the R & D expenses and the patent number which seemed to be a substitute variable of the R & D activities in those companies. The analysis said that, after the deregulation, although a tendency to decrease was seen in the R & D expenses in both the electricity and gas companies, a decline tendency in the gas companies was more remarkable than the electricity companies concerning about the patent number. From analysis with the patent IPC, the electricity companies could be said to have the strategy of diversification with their technologies, on the other hand, the gas companies made their technologies intensive. Those results show the influence of deregulation was different between the R & D routine of the electricity and gas companies.
