R&D,productivity, and market value: An empirical study from high-technology firms

Although prior research has addressed the influence of production activity and research and development (R&D) on productivity, it is not clear whether production and R&D affect the market value of a firm. This study proposes and verifies an R&D value chain framework to explore the relationship among productivity, R&D, and firm market values, as measured by Tobin's q theory. By doing so, we attempt to link new theoretical insights and empirical evidence on the effects of R&D efforts and basic production activities to the market valuations of high-technology firms. The value chain data envelopment analysis approach was proposed to estimate parallel-serial processes of basic operations and R&D efforts. This approach can be used to simultaneously estimate the profitability efficiency and marketability efficiency of high-technology firms. This area has rarely been studied, but it is particularly important for high-technology R&D policies and for further industrial development. Using the R&D value chain perspectives of model innovations and extensions proposed in several previous studies, we examined the appropriate levels of intermediate outputs. Production efficiency and R&D were combined to estimate the appropriate levels of intermediate outputs for high-technology firms. Based on the intermediate output analyses, we developed an R&D efforts decision matrix to explore and identify operational and R&D efficiency for high-technology firms. Our sample firms are displayed on a four-quadrant action grid that provides visual information on current short-term operational efficiency and decision making on long-term R&D strategic positions. The empirical findings from the R&D value chain model can provide information for policymakers and managers and suggest the adoption of various policies that place more emphasis on profitability and marketability strategies.     

Disentangling reciprocal relationships between R&D intensity,profitability and capital market performance: A panel VAR analysis

Research and development (R&D) investments are strategic choices that firms make to create and sustain competitive advantage. Extant literature proposes that firms’ R&D investments and their profitability and capital market performance are reciprocally related. However, the direction of these relationships and their temporal nature are unclear. We take a real options perspective to argue that the long-run firm performance effects of R&D investments are better than their short-term ones, and that the initial level of R&D intensity influences the nature of these relationships. We apply panel vector autoregression (P-VAR) to a sample of 6623 U.S. firms over the 1990–2020 period in order to test our hypotheses. Our results indicate that increases in R&D intensity have negative effects on profitability in the short term, yet these effects diminish relatively quickly. The effects of increases in R&D intensity on capital market performance are positive and persist over time. Consistent with our predictions, they are contingent on the initial levels of R&D intensity and performance. The findings are fundamentally in line with the real options perspective employed here, yet they add important nuance to our understanding of when, how, and under which conditions R&D investments and firm performance affect one another.     

External Knowledge Sourcing and Firm Innovation Efficiency

This study examines the relationship between external knowledge sourcing and firm innovation efficiency. We build on the organizational learning theory to propose that this relationship follows an inverted U‐shape: as the level of external knowledge sourcing increases from low to moderate, firm innovation efficiency increases; as the level of external knowledge sourcing increases from moderate to high, firm innovation efficiency declines. Further, we explore the moderating role of different contextual factors and contend that this inverted U‐shaped relationship is flattened in firms that operate in high‐tech sectors and in firms that face high internal constraints for innovation. Our empirical analysis is based on a sample of 3,204 Spanish firms over the period 2004–2015, and our results provide support for these contentions. We used data envelopment analysis methodology to estimate firm innovation efficiency relative to industry best performers, and truncated regression models for panel data with bootstrapped confidence intervals to test our hypotheses.     

Corporate Management,Industry Competition and the Sustainability of Firm Abnormal Profitability

This paper models the sustainability of firmabnormal profitability and uses theeffectiveness of corporate managementcapabilities as a test to examine its impact onthe sustainability of firm abnormalprofitability. The role of industry competitionas a moderator between the effectiveness ofcorporate management capabilities and thesustainability of firm abnormal profitabilityis also examined. Consistent with theresource-based view of the firm, we found thatthe effectiveness of corporate managementcapabilities positively influence thesustainability of firm abnormal profitability.This implies that corporate managementcapabilities are important contributors to theentire bundle of firm-specific resources andcapabilities which enable some firms togenerate competitive advantages that aresustainable. The effectiveness of corporatemanagement capabilities has a larger influenceon the sustainability of firm abnormalprofitability for firms in lowly competitive ormonopolistic industries than firms in highlycompetitive industries. The findings supportthe notion that not only do firm capabilitiesyield sustainable competitive advantages andabnormal profitability, but also industrycompetition reinforces the impact of firmcapabilities in yielding sustainable abnormalprofitability.     

How do formal and informal institutions influence firm profitability in emerging countries?

Drawing from institutional economics, we examine how the quality of formal institutions (e.g. protection of property rights, efficiency of the judicial system and government regulations) and a particular aspect of informal institutions, trust, influence the profitability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) vis-à-vis large firms. Our theoretical framework, which is supported by an analysis of over 205,000 observations in 16 emerging countries in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, explains why informal and formal institutions have a considerably different effect on the profitability of SMEs and large firms, and indicates that while SMEs benefit from formal institutional quality more than large firms do, large firms benefit from trust in society more than SMEs. It further shows that formal institutions and trust substitute each other in influencing firm profitability and that this substitution effect is stronger for large firms.     

基于DEA和SFA评价的企业效率与企业价值之联结性研究——以中日电器行业上市公司为样本

以2000年至2006年间近300家中日两国电气器械行业上市公司为样本,分别使用DEA和SFA技术估算了两国电气器械行业上市公司的技术效率,并发现即使在市场竞争充分的电气器械行业中,中日两国都存在严重的低效率现象.然后,基于面板数据随机效应模型,在引入了企业经营业绩、企业规模、财务杠杆、股权结构以及产品市场等控制变量的前提下,检验了企业效率与企业价值的联结性.研究结果表明,在日本电气器械行业中,企业效率对企业价值有着显著的弹性贡献(约等于0.3);然而,在中国电气器械行业上市公司中,却未能发现这二者之间有显著的相关性.     

企业集团成长模式与上市国有企业多元化行为研究

鉴于我国企业集团历史背景的特殊性,主要以企业资源依存理论为基础,以集团公司为研究核心,选取2007～2009年在沪、深上市的国有企业以及国有企业集团作为研究样本,运用二项回归与多元回归分析等多种方法,对我国企业集团的集团公司成长模式与上市国有企业的多元化行为进行了理论与实证分析。研究结果表明,企业集团是我国国有企业的一种快速成长模式,其成长与企业多元化行为高度正相关;国家资源调配的政策导向对国有企业集团的战略导向和组织结构设计有重要影响,但企业集团的产品多元化程度与企业绩效不相关。     

Technological alliance portfolio configuration and firm performance

Firms pursuing technological alliances to gain competitive advantages have become a ubiquitous phenomenon in today’s business environment. This article examines which technological alliance portfolio configuration is better for focal firm performance using a portfolio rather than a dyadic perspective. To assess technological alliance portfolio effects on Korean pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, we adopted three explanatory variables—number of alliances, number of partners, and spanning structural holes. The growth rate of revenue and the growth rate of profit are used as dependent variables. We identify two characteristics of technological alliance portfolios from the two-step generalized method of moments estimates. First, we find that between two firms with the same number of alliances, the firm with the larger number of partners would have a better performance. This result is unlike those in previous studies because it distinguishes between the number of alliances and number of partners based on the network theory. Second, we find that spanning structural holes affects firm performance rather like a double-edge sword—it positively affects the growth rate of profit but negatively affects the growth rate of revenue of firms. In short, spanning structural holes is simultaneously beneficial for firm profitability and unfavorable for firm growth. This result differs from those of earlier studies because it shows that a firm spanning structural holes among alliance partners produces either a positive or a negative effect, suggesting that a firm should vary its strategy depending on whether it prioritizes profitability or growth.     

融资约束与代理成本对上市公司非效率投资的影响——基于双边随机边界模型的实证度量

在有效地控制企业最优投资水平的前提下,本文将融资约束与代理成本同时纳入到前沿异质性双边随机边界模型(Two-tier stochastic frontier model)框架下对我国上市公司的非效率投资程度进行了实证度量,并探讨了各种财务因素对融资约束与代理成本的影响.实证结果表明:融资约束的存在使得上市公司的投资支出较最优水平低了37.5％,而代理成本导致上市公司的投资支出超出其最优水平的30.6％,两者的净效果使我国上市公司整体上表现为投资不足,投资不足率为6.9％.此外,流动资产净额和资本存量的增加有助于缓解公司面临的融资约束程度,而规模较大、持有较多自由现金流的公司内部代理问题更为严重,并且不同规模和地区之间的上市公司非效率投资程度存在较大的差异.     

Association of DEA super-efficiency estimates with financial ratios: Investigating the case for Chinese banks

The great majority of applications of the popular frontier technique data envelopment analysis (DEA) do not test for the association of efficiency estimates with key performance indicators used by industry observers. Nevertheless, identifying efficiency estimates’ associations with commonly accepted financial measures of performance could guide benchmarking activities, pricing decisions, and regulatory monitoring. Thus, the current paper investigates to what extent bank DEA super-efficiency estimates are associated with key financial ratios. A low correlation may present an opportunity to address inefficiencies that were not obvious in financial ratio analysis, thus enabling an update of inferences drawn from ratios. Regressing ratios on efficiency estimates may also help predict financial ratios. Where an input–output specification is comprised of key financial ratios, DEA can also be used to objectively identify benchmarks for ratio analysis based on actual observed data collected from peers. Nine super-efficiency DEA formulations across two profitability models are systematically tested. The slacks-based measure of DEA with a parsimonious profitability efficiency model emerges as the most significant combination explaining the variation in the two industry ratios, post-tax profit/average total assets and return on average equity.