研發費用密集度與公司績效之關係--台灣上市、上櫃及興櫃公司實證(2002~2006年)

Abstract

創新活動在近年來成為愈來愈多公司的重心，一方面由於創新活動可使公司之競爭力維持在一定的水準，使公司之技術持續進步，甚而造成其他競爭業者欲進入該產業的門檻，經由本研究探討臺灣公司投入研發支出來進行創新活動的同時，投資者是否也同樣地可在臺灣公司財務報表上觀察到公司進行創新活動所達成的公司績效。 本研究透過公司會計與經濟帳面價值之概念經實證結果發現，臺灣公司投入研發支出對公司本身的績效無法真實地反應在公司之財務報表上，更進一步指出當臺灣公司研發資產比重高和公司其研發支出成長率與財報資產報酬率間的差距越高時，會導致公司其財報資產報酬率與研發調整資產報酬率之間的差距越大，亦即公司實質上之內部績效與財務報表上所觀察到的公司績效會有顯著地不同。而當上述兩個變數其數值愈接近於零時，便可得出財報資產報酬率與研發調整資產報酬率之間的差距越小，即公司實質上之內部績效與財務報表上所觀察到的公司績效未有顯著地不同。 除此之外，在實證的過程中也發現到公司其研發調整的資產報酬率也會隨著研發支出成長率和財報資產報酬率間之差距下降而降低。因此即使公司研發支出資產比的平均值很大，研發調整資產報酬率仍會呈現下降的趨勢；當公司研發成本成長率和財報資產報酬率固定不變時，公司其研發調整資產報酬率的平均數會隨研發支出資產比下降而下降，且本研究很清楚地發現，資產報酬率和成長率的差距都是在探討公司投入研發支出是否造成其內部實質上之績效與財務報表上觀察到之績效產生差異時必須被考慮到變數。 本研究以臺灣上市、上櫃及興櫃公司為研究對象，使用2002年-2006年連續擁有研發費用的上市、上櫃及興櫃公司作為做為實證研究對象之樣本，而樣本的組成與大小則依研發支出假設的使用年限而定。 本研究也指出在臺灣上市、上櫃及興櫃公司中，幾乎所有產業皆有進行投入研發支出之情形，只是投入研發支出比重的高低在各產業中有所不同，而在投入研發支出比重較高之公司多屬資訊電子業及化學產業，並列出臺灣公司研發支出比重較高之公司列表，以供後續研究者參考。

Innovation activities have been more and more important in many companies, not only because innovations could make companies more competitive, keep companies’ technology progress, but also establish the entry barrier for the industry which companies belong to. This article mainly discuss that whether investors could see real returns in company at the companies’ financial reports as Taiwan companies spend research and development expenses. This article refers to Danielson and Press (2005), calculate companies’ accounting book value and their economic book value, and use Taiwan’s listed companies which have continuous R&D expense during year 2002-2006 as research samples. We find that Taiwan listed companies have different returns between companies’ internal returns and companies’ financial report returns. We also noted that for R&D expenses, firms with high levels of R&D intensity and a great difference between eh firm’s growth rate and its ROA has large distortion on firm’s ROA. This article showed that the average ROA adjustment decreases with difference between firm’s R&D expense growth rate and its ROA. Thus, the average ROA adjustment drops progressively, even though the average values of R&D/Assets remain large. The average ROA adjustment also drops as R&D/Assets declines, holding differences between firm’s R&D expense growth rate and ROA constant. This article identifies two observable firm characteristics that must both be present for R&D expenses to distort return on assets (ROA): large R&D expenditures and a sizable difference between ROA and the firm’s growth rate. This article also notes that in Taiwan listed companies, almost every industry involves in R&D expenditures to do innovation activities. Not every industry have large R&D/Assets ratio. We find that in Taiwan’s listed companies, chemical and electrical companies have higher R&D/Assets ratio. In order to offer reference to other researchers, this article also shows exhibits listed higher those have higher R&D/Asset ratio of Taiwan’s listed companies.