A Reprise of Size and R&D

熊彼特和加尔布雷斯假设，大公司从研发中获得的成本更低，回报更高，因此，相对于它们的规模，预计它们在创新活动中所占的份额会不成比例。许多关于企业规模和研发努力之间关系的研究已经开展。研究结果表明，在模态产业中，在适度规模阈值以上，研发努力并不会随着企业规模的增加而成比例增加。然而，由于显然无法支持熊彼特的假设，这些程式化的事实在很大程度上被忽略了。最初假设公司通过自己的销售来开发创新，并且由于创新而产生的增长受当前产出的制约，该项目使用一个简单的模型来解释这些程式化的事实。然后，该模型也用于解释观测到的偏离模态关系的情况。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——如何制约企业规模与研发之间的关系。使用来自联邦贸易委员会商业线计划的数据、Scherer汇编的专利数据以及Levin等人对美国制造业技术机会和适宜性条件的调查数据，对模型进行测试，看看是否已经指定了正确假设的影响关系的因素。项目中使用的模型提供了一个独特的解释，在R&amp；D执行者中，R&amp；D努力和公司规模之间的比例关系。在过去，比例性被广泛解释为在研发中没有特别的优势或劣势。然而，在这个模型中，比例关系反映了研发预期收益与公司事前产出之间的联系。它表明，大公司将从任何给定的研发努力中获得比小公司更高的回报，这意味着规模和研发的优势。因此，导致拒绝熊彼特假设的程式化事实，即研发努力与企业规模之间的比例关系，实际上可能揭示了规模的优势。该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.