A comparative analysis of the change in R&D efficiency: a case of R&D leaders in the technology industry

ABSTRACT

This paper measures the cumulative change in research and development (R&D) efficiency of globally leading R&D companies in the technology industry. We use Data Envelopment Analysis /Malmquist index to analyse 49 such companies. The change in R&D efficiency is analysed by decomposing the Malmquist index into ‘catch-up’ and ‘frontier shift’ indices, and by comparing cumulative indices to those at the starting period. Those cumulative indices are obtained at both a firm and an industry level. Results indicate that the overall R&D efficiency of these globally leading R&D companies declined slightly during the period 2007–2013. At a firm level, this study determines in detail how the trend of each firm in R&D activities differs from other companies.

KEYWORDS:

• R&D management
• R&D efficiency change
• R&D evaluation
• hi-tech industries

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Hongseok Jang received a M.S. in Industrial and Management Engineering from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea; a B.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering and a B.B.A. from University of Seoul, South Korea. His research interests include strategic management of technology, management information systems and decision support system.

Dr Suchul Lee is a senior researcher in Department of Future R&D Strategy at Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI). He received a B.S. and a Ph.D. in Industrial and Management Engineering from POSTECH. Dr Lee’s primary research interests include management information systems, knowledge management, decision support system and strategic management of technology.

Dr Euiho Suh is a full professor in Department of Industrial and Management Engineering at POSTECH. He has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Seoul National University, South Korea; two master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Stanford University, USA; and a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. His research interests include management information systems, decision support systems, strategic management of information systems, information and knowledge management, and strategic management of technology.