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Open research questions in Innovation Policy and R&D

124 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 1,413 Innovation Policy and R&D papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Digital transformation has accelerated corporate innovation and strengthened competitive advantage, yet its impact on one of the most critical innovation inputs—corporate R&D expenditure—remains underexplored.

    How Digital Transformation Shapes Corporate R&D Expenditure: An Exploration of Multidimensional Perspectives and Innovation Consequences · 2025 · DOI

  • Research is still lacking on whether these factors have continuing, stable impacts on NIC in different economies.

    Analyzing the configuration of the National Innovation System for Innovation Capability: evidence from Global Innovation Index reports · 2024 · DOI

  • or me a view that I have held for some time, that much further research is needed on how the behaviour of multinational companies may distort the relationship between technological innovation and economic performance by breaking the link between the location of research and the location of production.

    Technology, Innovation and Economic Policy edited by Peter Hall (Philip Allan, Oxford, 1986) pp viii + 248, ISBN 0-86003-062-8, 0-86003-171-3 Pbk · 1986 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in understanding the factors affecting the implementation of Digital Transformation. The study identifies a gap in understanding the causal relationship between Digital Transformation and new product/service innovation.

    The Challenge of Digital Transformation for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Japan · 2026 · DOI

  • Systemic slackness in Hungary's innovation ecosystem. Limited availability of data for some indicators. Bias towards small or English-speaking countries due to the coverage of Scopus' publication data.

    Unveiling the dynamics of Hungary’s innovation performance · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research can apply the study's approach to other countries to evaluate their innovation efficiency. Future research can investigate the causes of systemic slackness in Hungary's innovation ecosystem. Future research can explore ways to improve Hungary's innovation performance.

    Unveiling the dynamics of Hungary’s innovation performance · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of agreement on the impact of public assistance, with heterogeneous empirical findings. The potential of public subsidies is not entirely exploited and they only exert a partial beneficial effect on innovation spending.

    Public Subsidies and Firm Innovation in Latin America: A Non-Parametric Assessment of Policy Effectiveness · 2026 · DOI

  • Prior studies typically capture either national-level or company-level data on globally dispersed inventive activities without considering region-specific insights. There is a lack of empirical evidence on the role of contextual factors for the development of corporate green innovation beyond the headquarters.

    Green patenting within R&D host regions: technology sourcing and reverse spillover effects · 2026 · DOI

  • Consequently, caution is warranted when attempting to generalize the results to non-OECD countries with different institutional structures and innovation ecosystems.

    The Relationship Between R&D Tax Incentives and Innovation Performance: An Empirical Analysis of Oecd Countries · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in the existing literature on the relationship between digital patents, R&D investment, and total factor productivity. The study highlights the need to consider the depth of digital technology accumulation rather than just the existence of digital patent activity.

    Digital patenting, R&D dynamics, and the economic foundations of sustainable development: Evidence from Chinese listed firms · 2026 · DOI

  • The existing literature has understudied the impact of DT innovation on firm operational performance. There is a need to investigate the moderating effects of financial slack and industry dynamism on the relationship between DT innovation and operational efficiency.

    The impact of digital twin innovation on firm operational performance: a knowledge-based perspective · 2026 · DOI

  • Few researchers have distinguished the marginal effects of educational attainment within the tertiary level on firm-level innovation. There is a lack of studies on the relationship between educational attainment and innovation output in the pharmaceutical industry.

    Educational Attainment and Drug Firm Innovation · 2026 · DOI

  • A common concern for some of the above analyses is that firms with greater past innovation output may invest in more human capital later, so that the response variable, innovation output, could affect the explanatory variables, such as educational attainment. There has been plethora of anecdotal evidence that biologists and life scientists often prefer to work in startups or small biotech firms over large established ones. The reasons cited include valuing a less formal but more dynamic and innovative environment, with greater freedom to directly influence a project’s entire process and outcome. Such benefits outweigh the downside of higher risk and instability of a young firm. Roach and Sauermann (2024), a new compelling study in such literature (Bengtsson and Hand 2013; Kim 2018), validate “high ability” people’s preference of startups over established firms in the high-tech field. They find that high ability employees are more likely to work in the significantly lower-paying startups than their ‘equivalent counterparts in established firms’. These high ability employees are 2,394 science and engineering Ph.D.s surveyed when they were graduate students in U.S. research universities and later during their first job in industrial R&D. Their results “suggest that preference benefits of startup employment outweigh the opportunity costs of forgoing greater productivity and higher pay in established firms”. Their results further show that talent comes ahead of innovation, not the other way around. Our observation is that startups tend to have top talent but insufficient time to produce many, or any, patents, so in this case, talent comes before results and success. Furthermore, the results from the heterogenous tests above show that biologics require more talent and take longer time to obtain patents. These firms tend to be younger but more advanced, and they have significantly fewer patents than smallmolecule firms do, though they have similar numbers of pipelines that will produce patents later. The evidence suggests again that talent begets and comes ahead of patents, not the other way around. Intuitively, it could be true that with perhaps a significant delay more talent does beget talent by following the footprint of success. The dynamic sequence will be an interesting future research question to explore with a more expansive dataset. 134 Journal of Applied Business and Economics Vol.

    Educational Attainment and Drug Firm Innovation · 2026 · DOI

  • Limited innovation resources and heavy financing pressure faced by firms. High transformation costs and weak internal motivation of firms. Possible estimation bias caused by an uneven regional distribution of the sample.

    Innovation Element Agglomeration and Enterprise Green Innovation: Mechanism Analysis Based on Cost Effect and Factor Matching Effect · 2026 · DOI

  • While high-value patent technology search is crucial for enhancing the total factor productivity (TFP) of international entrepreneurial firms (IEFs), its exact impact remains debated, with some studies reporting negative effects.

    Complementarity or substitutability? The impact of technology search on the total factor productivity of international entrepreneurial firms · 2026 · DOI

  • The study uses a simulated model, which may not capture all the complexities of the real-world system. The model is calibrated to historical data, which may not reflect future trends.

    Modeling the impacts of budget reductions at the U.S. NIH on research and innovation · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a gap in understanding the long-term effects of funding changes on the research ecosystem. Prior work has focused on retrospective or regression-based analyses, which may miss time-lagged and feedback-driven effects.

    Modeling the impacts of budget reductions at the U.S. NIH on research and innovation · 2026 · DOI

  • The existing literature usually examines data on the whole regional economies, ignoring industry differences. The paper identifies a gap in understanding the differences in the interaction between regional-level variables across various industries. The study seeks to address this gap by examining the relationships between regional-level variables in various industries.

    The causal interaction between innovations, specialization, start-ups, qualifications, and subsidies: a spatial VAR analysis for various industries in Germany · 2026 · DOI

  • Further research could investigate the impact of government ownership on innovation in non-listed firms - Research could explore the relationship between government ownership and firm performance in different industries

    Government Share Ownership and Innovation: Evidence from European Listed Firms · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the literature on the impact of government ownership on innovation. The paper notes that prior research has shown that the private sector underfunds innovative activities, but has not examined the role of government ownership in addressing this gap.

    Government Share Ownership and Innovation: Evidence from European Listed Firms · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in the understanding of the innovation paradox in transition economies. The gap is characterized by a lack of understanding of the role of institutional drivers and capability orchestration in determining innovation performance.

    The innovation paradox: Institutional drivers and capability orchestration in Vietnamese enterprises · 2026 · DOI

  • However, the interaction between different types of DICs—namely, exploratory and exploitative DICs—and their combined impact on ESG performance remains underexplored in existing research.

    Dynamic Evolution of Ambidextrous Digital Innovation Capabilities and the Development of Environmental, Social and Governance Performance · 2025 · DOI

  • The patent publication-based approach may not precisely predict the future shape of technological evolution - The strength of this method lies in its ability to highlight shifts in innovation activity

    Using patents to support prospective life cycle assessment: opportunities and limitations · 2024 · DOI

  • Future research can focus on developing more advanced patent analysis techniques - The study's findings can be applied to various fields such as technological forecasting and research and development

    Using patents to support prospective life cycle assessment: opportunities and limitations · 2024 · DOI

  • This paper attempts to determine whether such bundling is warranted by conducting a regional level investigation for Canada, the United States, on the one hand, and Europe, on the other, to (a) identify the structural and socioeconomic factors that drive patenting in the less developed regions of North America and Europe, respectively; and (b) explore how these factors differ between the two contexts.

    Innovating in less developed regions: What drives patenting in the lagging regions of Europe and North America · 2018 · DOI

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124 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 1,413 Innovation Policy and R&D papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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