研發費用與獲利之關聯－以台灣化學產業為例

Abstract

為探討組織每年研究發展支出與營業績效之關聯性，本研究選取化學產業台灣45家原始樣本公司，其中有效樣本公司為29家;包括上市工業化學、上櫃公開化學、公開發行化學工業，以及一間興櫃化學C公司。研究樣本公司之營業期間為2008年至2020年，初始觀察值共377筆，以建構多個解釋公司績效的模型，方法選用Panel Data 迴歸方法分析，被解釋變數「每股盈餘」的定義為稅後淨利與在外流通股數之比率，並以資本額、從業員工、營業收入、本期淨利、當期研發支出、前期研發支出、前二期研發支出等作為解釋變數。除此之外，也額外增加了外部因素，包括經濟成長率以及通貨膨脹率來探討研究結果。實證結果發現：(1)當期的研發支出費用無法對該公司營業額產生顯著影響。(2)變數前二期研發支出對每股盈餘有顯著正相關。(3) 在只考慮時間因素的 Panel Data模型中，解釋能力最佳，證實化學產業是一個高度整合上中下游的產業，產業間彼此互相影響，該年度外部經濟的景氣好壞也對盈餘高低有所影響。

To explore the relationship between research and development (R&D) expenses and financial performance, this study selects Taiwanese companies in chemical industry with the observation window from 2008 to 2020. The 29 valid sample companies include chemical firms that are TWSE listed, OTC listed, publicly issued, and ongoing listed and the resulting dataset has 377 observations. This study adopts Panel data regression analysis to examine how R&D influences company performance. The determinant variable, earning per share, is measured by the ratio of net income to the number of outstanding shares. The explanatory variables include the capital size, number of employees, operating income, net profit, R&D expenditure for current year, one-year lag, two-year lag, etc. External factors, such as economic growth rates and inflation rates are also added to explore their effects. The empirical results show that (1) the current year R&D expenditure does not have a significant impact on the company’srevenue, (2) the two-year-lag R&D expenditure has a significant and positive correlation with earnings per share, and (3) the Panel Data model with time as its sole factor presents the best explanatory power. Such result confirms that the chemical industry has high degree of vertical integration and companies within the industry impact each other. The external economy also affects profitability.