Title: The impacts of public policies on private R&D investment in Taiwan's national science parks

Authors: Shu-Chin Huang; Jen-Jen Lin

Addresses: Department of Economics, Ming Chuan University, 5 De-Ming Rd., Gui-Shan Xiang, Taoyuan County, Taiwan 333, China ' Department of Applied Statistics and Information Science, Ming Chuan University, 5 De-Ming Rd., Gui-Shan Xiang, Taoyuan County, Taiwan 333, China

Abstract: As more and more companies engage in overseas investment, there is a need for reviewing current policies to promote domestic R&D investment. This paper investigates the impacts of government policies, demand, R&D entrepreneurship, internal Scientific and Technological (S&T) knowledge, local environment and financial opportunities on private firms' R&D investment decisions. Using Taiwan's national science parks for the study, we find that demand incentives and R&D entrepreneurship are the most decisive factors, while firms' internal S&T knowledge, local research infrastructure, financial opportunities from stock markets and R&D tax credits are also influential factors in determining R&D investment. Different from previous studies focusing on R&D grants and subsidies, this research finds that the two measures are relevant but their effects are less important than the other factors stated above. The policy implication is that a modification of current technology policies is needed to incorporate the important determinants into policy designs to promote domestic R&D investment.

Keywords: R&D investment; research and development; entrepreneurship; demand pull; technology policy; supply push; institutions; science parks; relative risk; proportion test; public policy; Taiwan; domestic R&D; demand incentives; science and technology; research infrastructure; financial opportunities; stock markets; tax credits; technology policy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTPM.2014.058728

International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management, 2014 Vol.14 No.1, pp.1 - 28

Received: 29 Aug 2012
Accepted: 18 Apr 2013

Published online: 27 Oct 2014 *

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