台灣資訊電子產業研究發展活動與公司經營績效之研究

Abstract

研究發展活動雖然需要投入相當多的資源，但是卻是一個科技公司所依賴維持競爭力的一項企業活動。本研究以延伸型的Cobb-Douglas生產函數驗證資訊電子產業所投入的研究發展活動對其經營績效的影響。採用損益表中之會計科目作為公司經營績效的衡量指標，並以公司投入的研究發展費用與投入研究發展密集度作為衡量公司投入研究發展活動的指標。公司之員工人數、資產總額等資料則是本研究的控制變數。 實證結果發現如下：首先，公司的營收與所投入的研究發展密集度之間呈現負相關。其次，公司的銷貨成本與所投入的研究發展密集度之間同樣呈現負相關。顯示研究發展活動對於公司營收的績效方面增加幫助不大；然而，研究發展活動卻有助於台灣資訊電子產業降低銷貨成本。最後，實證發現一個特別的現象，也就是研究發展活動與營收金額之間的關係有一個門檻。當研究發展費用超過相當金額後，研究發展活動與營收之間將會出現正相關。

Though costly, R&D is an important activity that technological firms rely on to enhance their competitiveness. In this thesis, an extended Cobb-Douglas production function was proposed and used to examine the influence of R&D activity on the performance of Taiwan’s IC and PC 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, the variable of sales is negatively related to the variable of R&D intensity. Second, the variable of cost of goods sold is also negatively related to the variable of R&D intensity. It seems that the R&D activities did not help to improve corporate performance in terms of bringing in more sales. However, our evidences suggest that R&D activity do enhance Taiwan’s PC and IC related firms by helping them to bring down the cost of goods sold. We also documented a peculiar phenomenon. There seems to exist a threshold in the relationship between R&D activity and the sales volume of the underlying firm. R&D expenses have to exceed a certain amount before they begin to have a positive relationship with the sales volume.