Research and development in enterprises operating in application sectors of the National Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation of the Czech Republic

The topic of this contribution is an evaluation of the structure and evolution of the Research & Development (R&D) expenditure of enterprises operating in particular application segments of the National Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation of the Czech Republic (NRIS3 strategy). The source for the analysis are the anonymized yearly statistical surveys on R&D (Annual Statement on Research & Development, VRR 5-01).

The analysis indicates that the R&D within the majority of the application segments defined in the NRIS3 strategy is carried out mainly in enterprises under the foreign control. The enterprises under the foreign control dominate in the R&D in segment, which constitute the backbone of the national economy (automotive and associated industry) as well as in prospective areas as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, digital technologies, and electronics. R&D carried out by domestic enterprises is predominantly in technologically less demanding areas like power generation, metallurgy or industrial chemistry or areas of a local character (agriculture and forestry, environment and biodiversity, and construction and settlements). The R&D expenditure of the enterprises under the foreign control grows significantly faster than in the domestic ones. The fraction of R&D carried out in enterprises under foreign control increases in the majority of the NRIS3 strategy application areas.

The domestic enterprises use the direct public support more extensively in comparison to the foreign controlled ones. In a number of the application fields, the public support reimburses a significant fraction of the domestic enterprises’ R&D cost. In some fields, no R&D would be carried out without the public support. In spite of larger fraction of the direct public support of the domestic enterprises the foreign controlled enterprises R&D expenditure grows significantly faster than in the domestic ones. On the other hand, there are some areas where the domestic enterprises do not rely on the public purse, and are more R&D active than the foreign controlled ones. A typical example are domestic enterprises in the field of mechanical engineering and mechanotronics where the total R&D expenditure grows while the fraction of the public support diminishes.