R&D Scoreboard에 의한 연구개발투자와 성과의 연관성 분석

This study develops a Korean R&D Scoreboard which has originated from the R&D Scoreboard in United Kingdom. The Scoreboard contains details of the R&D investment, sales, growth, profits and employee numbers for Korean companies which are extracted from company annual reports and key ratios calculated, with some movements over time. Companies are classified by the Korea Standard Industrial Classification. The Scoreboard contains 190 companies which consist of 100 largest companies and 30 middle-or small-sized firms listed in Korea Stock Exchange (KSE), and 30 ventures and 30 other firms listed in KOSDAQ. The overall company R&D intensity (R&D as a percentage of sales) is 2.1% compared to the international average of 4.2%. Korea has an unusually large R&D percentage of sales in IT hardware (4.9%) and telecommunication (3.7%). R&D intensity is positively correlated with company performance measures such as profitability, sales growth, productivity and market value. For largest companies listed in KSE and ventures listed in KOSDAQ, the ratio of operating profit to sales is greater for high R&D intensity companies. Sales growth is in proportion to R&D intensity for all companies. Plots of value added per employee or sales per employee vs R&D per employee rise together for the sectors studied, especially for the chemical sectors and automobile sectors, demonstrating a correlation with productivity. The average market value of high R&D companies in the KSE has risen more than 1.6 times that of the KOSPI 200 index. Given the correlation between R&D intensity and company performance and given that R&D is a smaller percentage of surplus (profits plus R&D) than international level (both overall and in several sectors), the challenges facing Korean companies are to maintain the leading position in IT hardware and telecommunication, and to increase the intensity of R&D in many medium-intensive R&D sectors where Korea has an average intensity well below international or US levels.