Investment strategies in intellectual capital in the new economy: evidence from the top R&D-intensive tech companies

This paper gives a comprehensive review of existing empirical studies on the relationship between R&D spending and innovation strategy. Against this background, this empirical study contributes to the literature by addressing the issue of variation in R&D spending at global technology companies: Microsoft, Samsung, and Apple. Results from ANOVA show that there is a statistically significant difference in the spending ratio among these companies, this is mainly because each company's innovation strategy is different. However, there is a relative convergence in R&D spending between the two strategies: Market Readers and Technology Drivers adopted by Samsung and Microsoft, respectively, as both strategies require diversification of technology portfolio and thus more R&D spending. The empirical studies recommend that it is important for technology companies to consider their critical innovation capabilities and align their distinctive innovation strategy with an effective business strategy rather than trying to increase R&D investments indefinitely.