I think “R&D” is a misleading category—it comprises a LOT of activities with different uncertainty, type, scope, and timeframe of impact. For tax and reporting purposes, a whole lot of not-very-research-ey software and other engineering is classified as “R&D”, though it’s more reasonably thought of as “implementation and construction”.
Nordquist’s “Innovation” measure is very different from economic reporting of R&D spending. This makes the denominator very questionable in your thesis.
Perhaps more important, returns are NOT uniformly distributed. Even successful “pure research” projects have a MIX of short/medium-term localized benefits and longer/broader impacts, and research insitutions are (mostly) pretty good at managing BOTH grants and licensing/product development as funding and “value capture” mechanisms.
I think “R&D” is a misleading category—it comprises a LOT of activities with different uncertainty, type, scope, and timeframe of impact. For tax and reporting purposes, a whole lot of not-very-research-ey software and other engineering is classified as “R&D”, though it’s more reasonably thought of as “implementation and construction”.
Nordquist’s “Innovation” measure is very different from economic reporting of R&D spending. This makes the denominator very questionable in your thesis.
Perhaps more important, returns are NOT uniformly distributed. Even successful “pure research” projects have a MIX of short/medium-term localized benefits and longer/broader impacts, and research insitutions are (mostly) pretty good at managing BOTH grants and licensing/product development as funding and “value capture” mechanisms.