In innovation systems, an increasing division of labour has led to the formation of specialised R&D institutions that provide services for innovative companies. There is thus a market for R&D services. As a result of various economic trends such as increasing competition, decentralisation and out-sourcing, a company's future competitiveness in the areas of research, development and innovation will increasingly depend on an efficient integration into scientific-technical networks.
The supply side of the R&D services market in Germany is characterised, on the one hand, by public research institutions (Fraunhofer Society, universities, technical colleges, national research centres etc) and, on the other, by private, profit-oriented firms. For the private R&D service providers in particular, no statistics and only little information on their situation and development exist.
The duality of public and private R&D services in the German research system could lead to distortions of competition when privileged public R&D institutions stand in competition with private, commercial firms. Various ways of generating new technological knowledge, various institutionally conditioned cost structures and tax obligations can result in private R&D service providers having institutional competitive disadvantages vis-à-vis public institutions. It is also possible, however, that vertical, complementary market structures may form between the two types of organisations.
In light of this situation, the project has the following goals:
At the outset of the study, a definition and typology of R&D services will be worked out. The economic analysis will be done on the basis of industrial organisation theories and the theory of public goods. For the descriptive analysis of the market for R&D services, the concept of national innovation systems, as used by the OECD, will also be employed. On the basis of a panel survey in the manufacturing industry, a quantitative extrapolation of corporate spending for external R&D services will be calculated. The features of actors on the supply and demand sides will be examined with the help of statistical significance analyses.
Only partial quantitative data is available for the supply side as well as for the demand side. For this reason the data will be supplemented by a special survey on the demand for R&D services in the manufacturing industry, using the corporate panel of the Ifo Institute as a basis. On the demand side, private firms will be surveyed on a random-sample basis. The most important public research institutions will be approached for expert interviews. Supplementary interviews will also be conducted with selected firms and organisations that take part in the written survey.
K. Koschatzky, M. Reinhard, C. Grenzmann, Forschungs- und Entwicklungsdienstleistungen in Deutschland – Struktur und Perspektiven eines Wachstumsmarktes, Fraunhofer IRB-Verlag, Stuttgart 2003.
RSS