長い時間軸におけるR&D投資パターンと収益性の関係

業種・時間差異に焦点を当てて

抄録

In recent years, it is often said that while the closed innovation paradigm with technologies kept within individual companies is no longer sustainable, the open innovation paradigm is important for companies to improve R&D efficiency and drive corporate innovation. However, the resource-based view, or more specifically dynamic capabilities argue that internal resources and capabilities are important for companies to sense and seize external knowledge and opportunities. Due to the significant role it plays in sensing and seizing knowledge and opportunities, R&D is considered to have an impact on corporate performance. Meanwhile, previous studies have not necessarily found a clear relationship between R&D investment and profitability. Possible reasons are the short timespans for analyses in the previous studies and the accounting practice that treats R&D expenditures as expenses, resulting in a negative impact on profitability. Given this context, this paper aims to analyze how R&D investment impacts profitability from a long-term perspective by industry. Fluctuation cycle of R&D intensity, operating margin ratio, and sales has been also analyzed to deepen understanding on unbalanced corporate growth expected from the resource-based view. This paper reveals that increasing R&D intensity leads to higher profitability with time-lag from a long-term perspective in the industries where R&D plays a significant role, and the timespan of fluctuation cycles for corporate performance indicators is approximately four to five years.