Abstract
This paper builds on agency and institutional theory to extend the analysis of the effects of ownership and control on R&D investments by considering the influence of different types of ownership and of institutional corporate governance systems. Our empirical analysis is based on a unique dataset of 1000 firms publicly-traded in six European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden and the UK). Controlling for industry- and firm-level effects, our findings show that higher shareholding by families is negatively associated with R&D investment. Moreover, widely-held firms invest less in R&D in the United Kingdom than in Continental European countries, thus suggesting the existence of a greater pressure towards the reduction of R&D in market-based governance systems. The results are robust against possible sample selection biases due to firms' discretional R&D disclosure.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1093-1104 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Research Policy |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2010 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Corporate governance
- Owner identity
- R&D investments
- Western europe
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Strategy and Management
- Management Science and Operations Research
- Management of Technology and Innovation
