A Reprise of Size and R&D

熊彼特和加尔布雷斯假设，规模较大的公司从研发中获得的成本更低、回报更高，其结果是，相对于它们的规模，预计它们将在创新活动中占据不成比例的份额。关于公司规模和研发努力之间的关系，已经进行了大量研究。研究发现，在中等规模门槛以上的模式行业，研发努力并不随着公司规模的扩大而成比例上升。然而，这些风格化的事实显然未能支持熊彼特的假设，因此在很大程度上被忽视了。这个项目最初假设企业通过自己的销售来利用他们的创新，创新带来的增长取决于当前的产出，这个项目使用一个简单的模型来解释这些程式化的事实。然后，该模型也被用来解释观察到的偏离模式关系的情况。其目的是解释行业因素--特别是行业内的动态因素和适宜性机制--如何调节企业规模和研发之间的关系，使用来自联邦贸易委员会业务线计划的数据、来自Scherer的专利数据和来自Levin等人的数据。在对美国制造业的技术机会和适用性条件进行调查后，对该模型进行了测试，以确定是否指定了制约这种关系的正确假设因素。该项目中使用的模型提供了一个独特的解释之间的比例关系R&D努力和企业规模的R&D执行者。在过去，比例被广泛地解释为表明R&D在规模上没有特别的优势或劣势，然而在这个模型中，比例关系反映了R&D的预期收益与公司事前产出之间的联系。它表明，较大的公司将从任何给定的R&D努力中获得比较小的公司更大的回报，这意味着规模和R&D优势。因此，导致熊彼特假设被拒绝的程式化事实，即R&D努力与公司规模之间的比例关系，实际上可能揭示了规模优势。这一论点的一个重要含义是，创新回报是企业规模的递增函数，这意味着企业规模在研发方面具有优势。

Schumpeter and Galbraith hypothesized that larger firms experience lower costs and greater returns from R&D and as a consequence would be expected to perform a disproportionate share of innovative activity relative to their size. Numerous studies of the relationship between firm size and R&D effort have been conducted. The findings are that within the modal industry, above a modest size threshold, R&D effort does not rise proportionally with firm size. Having apparently failed to support the Schumpeterian hypothesis, however, these stylized facts have been largely ignored. Initially assuming that firms exploit their innovations through their own sales and that growth due to innovation is conditioned by current output, this project uses a simple model to explain these stylized facts. The model is then used to explain observed departures from the modal relationships as well. The objective is to explain how industry factors - particularly dynamic factors and appropriability mechanisms within industries -- condition the relationship between firm size and R&D. Using data from the Federal Trade Commission's Line of Business Program, patent data compiled from Scherer and data from the Levin et al. survey on technological opportunity and appropriability conditions in U.S. manufacturing industries, the model is tested to see if the correctly postulated factors that condition the relationship have been specified. The model used in the project provides a distinctive interpretation of the proportional relationship betweeen R&D effort and firm size among R&D performers. In the past, proportionality has been widely interpreted to indicate that there are no particular advantages or disadvantages of size in R&D. In this model, however, the proportional relationship reflects the link between the expected returns from R&D and the firm's ex ante output. It suggests that larger firms will earn greater returns from any given R&D effort than smaller firms, implying an advantage of size and R&D. Thus, the stylized fact that led to the rejection of the Schumpeterian hypothesis, namely the proportional relationship between R&D effort and firm size, may actually reveal an advantage of size. An important implication of the argument is that the returns to innovation are an increasing function of firm size, implying an advantage to firm size in R&D.