Impact of funding size on research outputs: evidence from South Korea's government-funded programme

초록

Research and development (R&D)-driven innovation plays a key role in achieving global competitiveness. Consequently, R&D investment has been increasing globally. Hence, improving research quality in proportion to the increase in R&D investment is necessary. Thus, we attempted to identify the relationship between the size of R&D grants and output. By analyzing R&D projects funded by South Korea spanning from 2011 to 2019, we found that the law of diminishing returns was observed between the scale of R&D grants and output, along with concavity in the correlation between the number of researchers involved and research output. These empirical findings highlight a tipping point where inefficiencies emerge in R&D projects. Through conducting a rigorous investigation, we presented academic and policy implications designed to alleviate wasteful practices in R&D projects. We believe our findings constitute a significant contribution to the discourse in related fields, providing a foundational framework for the efficient management of R&D projects.

키워드