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Why Do R&D Superstars Differ? An Empirical Analysis of the World’s Top R&D Investors

Filip Lestan et al.

International Journal of Global Business and Competitiveness2025https://doi.org/10.1007/s42943-025-00135-8article
ABDC C
Weight
0.37

What the paper says

Abstract Why do R&D superstar firms—the elite few that consistently dominate global R&D investment—differ in their innovation performance? This study decomposes the variance in R&D outcomes into firm-, industry-, and institution-level effects using the strategy tripod framework. Using the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard data of 3,444 firms from 2011 to 2022 (24,107 firm–year obs.), we introduce two novel performance metrics (i) Return on Research Capital (RORC) and (ii) Price-to-Research Ratio (PRR)in addition to (iii) R&D Intensity to capture both input- and output-based dimensions of R&D success. The results show that firm-specific effects primarily drive R&D Intensity, while industry and institutional factors explain greater variability in RORC and PRR, particularly among publicly listed firms. These findings suggest that the performance of R&D superstars is not solely firm-centric but shaped by sectoral and institutional contexts. By integrating the strategy tripod with multidimensional measures of R&D performance, this study advances understanding of what sustains superior corporate research outcomes.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s42943-025-00135-8

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@article{filip2025,
  title        = {{Why Do R&D Superstars Differ? An Empirical Analysis of the World’s Top R&D Investors}},
  author       = {Filip Lestan et al.},
  journal      = {International Journal of Global Business and Competitiveness},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s42943-025-00135-8},
}

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Why Do R&D Superstars Differ? An Empirical Analysis of the World’s Top R&D Investors

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Evidence weight

0.37

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.53 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.