Learning through experience in Research & Development: An empirical analysis with Spanish firms

In this paper we analyse the role of learning through experience in Research and Development (R&D) activities in strengthening firms' capabilities to achieve innovation outcomes and, subsequently, in obtaining rewards in terms of firms' performance. First, using an innovation productio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Technological forecasting & social change 2014-10, Vol.88, p.290-305
Main Authors: Beneito, Pilar, Rochina-Barrachina, María Engracia, Sanchis, Amparo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Count data
Financial performance
Innovations
Learning
Organizational learning
Product innovation
Product introduction
Production functions
R&D
R&D experience
Research & development
Small & medium sized enterprises-SME
Studies
Total factor productivity and sales
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Summary:In this paper we analyse the role of learning through experience in Research and Development (R&D) activities in strengthening firms' capabilities to achieve innovation outcomes and, subsequently, in obtaining rewards in terms of firms' performance. First, using an innovation production function approach, we estimate a count-data model and find that the number of years of engagement in R&D activities, or R&D experience, has a positive effect on the expected number of product innovations, although at a decreasing rate. In addition, our results suggest that, whereas large firms are more efficient than SMEs in converting R&D investment into product innovations, SMEs seem to be able to draw efficiency gains from R&D experience at least comparable, if not higher, to those obtained by large firms. Secondly, we find that not only the number of innovations but also their impact on firms' performance increase as firms accumulate R&D experience, suggesting that R&D experience helps to obtain not only more innovations but also innovations of a higher quality. •We analyse the role of learning in firms¹ R&D activities.•We estimate an innovation production function using count-data econometrics.•We find that R&D experience affects positively the expected number of innovations.•The impact of innovations on firms¹ performance increases with R&D experience•R&D experience helps firms to obtain more innovations and of a higher quality.
ISSN:0040-1625
1873-5509
DOI:10.1016/j.techfore.2013.10.009