ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

Amidst the environmental changes such as the industrial platformization, digitalization, convergence with various technologies and industries, and the shift towards online and non-face-to-face interactions, there has been an observed expansion of research and development (R&D) investments in the service industry. In this study, attention was focused on whether R&D investments in service firms enhance firm value. To investigate this, empirical analysis was conducted using data from 1,231 service firms listed on the KOSPI (Korea Stock Exchange) from 2010 to 2022. The key findings of the empirical analysis are as follows: First, R&D investments by service firms, measured through R&D intensity, had a positive impact on enhancing firm value, statistically significant at the 0.1% level. This suggests that securing technological superiority through R&D investments in service firms improves performance and subsequently increases firm value, aligning with much of the prior research conducted on manufacturing firms. Second, robustness tests that expanded the scope of the service industry also yielded consistent results. In other words, R&D intensity showed a statistically significant positive relationship with firm value measured by Tobin's Q at the 0.1% level of significance. This interpretation holds regardless of how the scope of the service industry is defined, suggesting that R&D investments in service firms generally have a meaningful impact on enhancing firm value.

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