Business group affiliation and R&D propensity

Enrico Guzzini () and Donato Iacobucci ()
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Enrico Guzzini: Università degli Studi eCampus, Italy

No 1203, Working Papers from c.MET-05 - Centro Interuniversitario di Economia Applicata alle Politiche per L'industria, lo Sviluppo locale e l'Internazionalizzazione

Abstract: In this paper we analyse whether belonging to a business group enhances firms’ R&D propensity and intensity as a result of the greater opportunities to co-ordinate R&D strategies and internalize the positive spillovers. We analyse the organization of R&D management within a business group and how the positioning of firms within the group influences their propensity for and intensity of R&D. We find a strong association between the degree of diversification of business groups and the way in which R&D is organized. Monosector groups are more likely to centralize R&D while diversified groups tend to give more autonomy to affiliated firms. We find also that R&D autonomy is significantly associated with both a higher R&D propensity and intensity in controlled firms. For the firm heading the group, we find that R&D autonomy (centralization) is associated with reduced (increased) R&D intensity, but that this association is less significant for R&D propensity.

Keywords: business groups; R&D investment; knowledge spillovers; diversification; R&D management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2012-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse and nep-ino
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://193.205.129.80/repec/cme/wpaper/cmetwp_03_2012.pdf First version, 2012 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cme:wpaper:1203

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