Impact of government policies on private R&D investment in agricultural biotechnology: Evidence from chemical and pesticide firms in China

Haiyan Deng, R. Hu*, Carl Pray, Yanhong Jin

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    32 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    China has put in place a series of policies to support private companies to engage in biotechnology research. This study uses data from a survey of 103 major agribusiness firms in the agricultural chemical and seed industries in China to evaluate the impact of government policies on private R&D investment in biotechnology. The results show that firms with positive profit expectation, public R&D subsidies, R&D collaboration with universities/research institutes or state-owned enterprises are more likely to embark on biotechnology research activities. Past patenting activity, R&D subsidies and collaboration with public sector research increase firms' biotechnology R&D investment while firms already selling genetically modified products and firms that are state-owned spend less on R&D. Our findings suggest that government policy does have an important impact on firms' biotechnology R&D investment.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)208-215
    Number of pages8
    JournalTechnological Forecasting and Social Change
    Volume147
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2019

    Keywords

    • Agricultural biotechnology
    • China
    • Policies
    • Private R&D investment

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