A Study of R&D Expenses and Corporate Performance of the Pharmaceutical and Biotech Firms in Taiwan

• Main Authors: LIN, CHIH-CHIEH, 林志傑
• Other Authors: HSU, MU-LAN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/40333930989431974969

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 商學研究所 === 91 === Since 1982, biotechnology has been selected to be the industry, which the government will fully support and develop in the future. The R&D always takes a large number of company resources significantly and it is particularly one of the most important activities the biotech firms rely on to enhance their competency. In this thesis, an extended Cobb-Douglas production function was used to examine the influence of R&D activity on the performance of Taiwan’s pharmaceutical and new biotechnological related firms. For corporate performance, various measures derived from income statement were used in this study. The R&D activities were proxied by the R&D expenses and the R&D intensity of the underlying firms. The number of employees and the total assets of each of the underlying firms were used as control variables. The main findings of this study are as follows: First, in the regression model with the whole specimens, R&D expenses show the marginal increasing effect on sales, at the same time, the variable of sales is positively related to the variable of R&D. In the same regression model, the other variables, such as capital and employees, are also positively related to the sales. That indicates the firms with more R&D expenses earn more sales and the firms with more capital and employees also earn more sales. Second, in the regression model with only the listed firms, R&D expenses and intensity show the marginal increasing effect on net income, at the same time, the variable of net income is positively related to the variable of R&D expenses and intensity. In the same regression model, the variable of the capital is positively related to the variable of net income. However the variable of employees is negatively related to the variable of net income. That indicates the firms with more R&D expenses earn more net income and the firms with more capital also earn more net income. In the regression model with only the non-listed firms, R&D intensity show the marginal increasing effect on sales, at the same time, the variable of sales is positively related to the variable of R&D intensity. In the same regression model, the other variables, such as capital and employees, are also positively related to the sales. That indicates the firms with more R&D expenses earn more sales and the firms with more capital and employees also earn more sales.