Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: The impact of R&D investments cannot be evaluated separately from the investments made in information technologies in today’s highly digitalized knowledge economy. Besides, there is a mixed evidence in the prior management literature on the impact of expensive R&D investments on either firm productivity or firm performance measures. This study explores the role of IT as a catalyst in enhancing the productivity of R&D processes using a unique multi-year firm level data of large global firms all over the world. The findings suggest that R&D and IT do not simply interact for better firm performance at all circumstances. The interaction effects are observed for industrial firms that spend more on R&D relative to their peers in the same industry; but not for firms that are in more knowledge-intensive industries. This study sheds light on the joint effects of R&D and IT making several other implications for companies and practitioners.
Language: English
Topic: Firm Innovation and Growth
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: University of Texas at Dallas
OpenAlex ID: W3108638534