Outcome measures of agricultural R&D and contributory factors

This paper measures the innovation performance of agricultural R&D in terms of outcome and analyses its determining factors. We measure the outcome of agricultural R&D by its contribution to agricultural competitiveness in terms of technology transfers, on-farm applications, the value added, and price competitiveness of farm products. We estimate R&D outcome functions by using two-stage regressions (negative binomial and ordered probit in the second stage) with special focus on the role of R&D output such as patents and SCI (Science Citation Index) papers. The regression results obtained using data on agricultural R&D projects in Korea suggest a need for varying R&D management strategies according to the performance objective (the outcome index) of each R&D project. The quality of R&D personnel appears to be the most common and effective source of agricultural competitiveness. In contrast, the conventional output measures such as patents and SCI papers do not influence the outcome measures adopted herein.