Role of Government on RD Investment in Knowledge-Based Economy: A Survey of Electronics Firms in Hong Kong

摘要

Governments in various economies are taking an active role and offering various incentive packages to attract research and development (R&D) investment and help the development of the high technology sectors. There is a major government initiative to make Hong Kong a centre of technology innovation, comprising various funding schemes, infrastructure and supporting organizations. This paper examines the role of government and its impact on R&D investment in a knowledge-based economy. The electronics sector is taken as an example to explore the critical factors that influence the R&D centre set up in Hong Kong. The critical factors identified are protection of intellectual property rights, presence of government research institutes and government research funds, tax incentives, availability of high quality R&D personnel, and proximity to manufacturing. The findings will be useful for the policy makers in reviewing their programs to attract more R&D investment, and for the electronics firms in devising their R&D strategy.