Science and Engineering Indicators 2014

Chapter 4. Research and Development: National Trends and International Comparisons

This section compares business R&D across OECD countries across two dimensions: the distribution of business R&D across industries and the role of affiliates of foreign MNCs.

Companies classified in manufacturing perform most business R&D in the top seven R&D-performing countries, with shares ranging from 89% in Germany to 69% in the United States, based on OECD’s Analytical Business Enterprise R&D (ANBERD) database (see table 4-12).^[18] These countries, however, differ in terms of the focus of their business R&D.

Pharmaceuticals manufacturing is the largest business R&D sector in the United Kingdom (28% of United Kingdom business enterprise R&D) and in the United States (16% of U.S. business enterprise R&D). Motor vehicles R&D has the largest share in Germany (33%). R&D in radio, television, and communication equipment manufacturing, which includes semiconductor devices, accounts for close to half (48%) of South Korea’s business enterprise R&D (figure 4-15).

Business R&D in other transportation equipment (appendix table 4-31), which includes commercial and defense-related aerospace and spacecraft, has the highest shares in the United States (13%), France (12%), and the United Kingdom (11%).^[19] These three countries also report the largest proportion of defense R&D within government budget appropriations or outlays for R&D (GBAORD) (table 4-15) discussed elsewhere in this chapter. In addition, France and the United Kingdom host 17 of the top 25 EU R&D-performing companies classified in the related category of aerospace and defense, according to the 2012 EU Scoreboard (EC 2012).

R&D in services industries (the main R&D performing component in nonmanufacturing) had the largest share in the United States (30%) and the lowest share in China (7%), based on the most recent comparable industry-level ANBERD data. Within services, computer and related services accounted for the largest share in the United States and the United Kingdom (figure 4-15; appendix table 4-31).

R&D performed within a country by affiliates of foreign MNCs represented more than half of business enterprise R&D in smaller OECD countries such as Belgium, Ireland, Israel, and several Eastern and Central European countries in 2009 (figure 4-16). Japan, the second-largest business R&D performer among countries reporting foreign-affiliate R&D, had the lowest share (6%), compared with about 14% for the United States.

Notes