The Joint Impact of R&D and ICT on Innovation in Japanese Innovative SMEs by Panel Data Analysis Based on Firm-Level Survey Data

This study examines R&D and information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the innovation process, and how these two are integrated with each other for innovation by panel data analysis. The surveys were conducted in February 2012 and March 2017. The number of innovations is taken as an outcome variable, while explanatory variables related to R&D and ICTs were extracted from related questions by factor analysis. The fixed effect robust model with an instrumental variable is estimated, since the error term may contain heteroscedasticity. R&D autonomy and the cross-term of R&D autonomy and ICTs are significant, indicating that ICTs contribute to innovation via R&D autonomy.