정부 R&D 지원사업의 성공요인에 관한 연구

Abstract

우리나라는 지난 10여년 동안 국가연구개발예산을 연평균 10% 이상 확대해 온 결과 국가전체 연구개발 투자규모가 GDP 대비 3.74%로 세계 3위권이며, 절대규모면에서도 세계 7위권 수준으로 조사되고 있다. 이제 연구개발예산의 양적인 증가에 걸맞는 연구효율과 성과 제고에 보다 많은 관심과 노력을 기울여야 할 때이다. 그 동안의 정부 R&D 지원이 얼마나 성과를 거두고 있는지, 또한 그 성공 요인은 어떤 것들이 주를 이루는지 검증하여, 향후 정부 R&D 지원의 방향을 모색하는 것은 한정된 연구자원의 효율적 투자를 위해 반드시 필요하다. 특히 중소기업이 전체기업의 99%를 차지하고 있는 우리나라의 경우, 국가 지원 중소기업기술개발사업의 성공요인을 분석하는 것은 더욱 의미 있는 연구가 될 것으로 판단된다. 본 연구에서는 정부의 연구개발자금을 지원 받은 수행기업의 특성, 연구과제의 특성 등에 따라 정부 R&D 투자의 성공여부에 어떻게 영향을 미치는지를 검토하고자 한다. R&D 투자의 효과와 성공요인에 관한 기존의 선행연구는 민간기업에 관한 연구가 대부분이며, 정부 연구개발사업의 성공요인에 관한 연구는 매우 부족한 실정이다. 대부분의 선행연구는 연구수행기업에 대한 설문조사를 통해 자료를 얻고 있으나, 본 연구에서는 연구과제 수행후 심의위원회의 심의를 통해 최종 확정된 기술개발과제의 성공판정 결과를 바탕으로 성공요인을 분석함으로서 선행연구에 비해 연구자료에 대한 객관성과 신뢰성을 한층 높였다. 본 연구는 중소기업청 소관의 중소기업기술개발사업중 2004년부터 2010년까지 7년간 지원된 과제에 대해 사업종료후 한국산업기술평가관리원의 기술평가심의위원회에서 기술적 성공/실패 여부가 최종 확정된 6,478개 과제를 대상으로 분석하였다. 연구개발 성과를 나타내는 정부연구개발사업 과제의 성공/실패여부가 종속변수로서 이항 명목변수이므로 연구 방법으로 이분형 로지스틱 모형을 사용하였다. 연구분석결과 수행기업의 종업원수가 많을수록, 수행기업이 벤처기업일수록 정부연구개발 과제의 성공에 미치는 영향이 크다는 결과가 나왔다. 향후 일정규모 이상의 연구인력을 확보한 기업과 벤처기업 중심으로 국가 연구개발자금을 지원하는 것이 효율적이라는 결과다. 수행기업의 기업환경(수도권/비수도권)과 기술분야(기계·소재, 바이오·의료, 전기·전자, 정보·통신, 지식서비스, 화학, 에너지자원등 7개분야)는 정부 R&D과제 성공에 유의미한 영향을 미치지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 다만, 16개 광역시도중 강원도, 경기도, 경상남도, 대전광역시, 서울시, 울산광역시, 전라남도 등 7개 지역과 기술분야중 에너지자원을 제외한 6개분야는 연구과제 개발기간, 수행기관 부채비율, 수행기관의 수, 수행기관의 종업원 수, 연구과제의 유형(자유/지정), 수행기업형태(벤처기업/비벤처기업) 등 6개 항목에서 각 지역별/기술분야별로 정부 R&D과제 성공요인에 유의미한 상관관계가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 지역별/기술분야별로 정부 R&D지원정책을 차별화할 필요가 있다는 의미로 해석된다. 또한 총 연구개발기간은 정부 R&D과제 성공에 부(-)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 분석되어 향후 중소기업지원 국가연구개발과제는 연구기간이 짧은 과제에 우선 투자하는 것이 바람직하다고 판단된다. 본 연구에서는 타 선행연구와 달리 수행기업의 부채비율이 정부연구개발과제의 성공에 유의미한 영향이 없는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 재무구조가 열악한 중소기업만을 대상으로 한 결과일 수 있으며, 향후 중소기업을 지원하는데 있어 부채비율 등 재무구조의 중요성에 대하여 재검토가 필요하다고 본다. 그리고 상시종업원수가 정부연구개발지원과제의 성공요인에 유의한 것으로 조사되었으나, 종업원의 구성내용에 대하여는 추가적인 조사가 필요하다고 본다. 즉 기업전체 고용인력 보다는 연구개발부문 고용인력과의 상관관계를 알아보는 것이 더욱 의미있는 연구가 될 것이다.|During the past 10 years Korea’s national budget for Research and Development(R&D) has increased more than ten percent on annual average and in 2012 alone 16 trillion won will be spent in R&D investment. Along with this quantitative growth of national budget, it is time to pay more attention to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of those government supported research. Therefore, it is timely and meaningful to evaluate the governmental support for R&D and determine the key factors to success of the R&D projects in order to suggest a desirable direction of the national R&D policy. According to government’s technology development programs, various R&D projects are designed to support small and medium sized enterprises(SME). To investigate and evaluate the R&D projects for SMEs is more important than ever because SMEs now account for 99% of total number of all the companies in Korea and employees in the SMEs are about 88% of total working people in Korea. In this study, the characteristics(company size and type, and technological environment, and financial structure) of SMEs which performed government R&D projects were analyzed to identify what factors contributed to the success of those projects. Different factors were also tested to find relationship with success of the projects. Those factors are various nature of research projects such as fields of technologies, application type(free/designated), applicants type(single company/ consortium) and period of R&D projects. While studies in the past are mainly on the technological success and investment decision of R&D in the private sector, there were not enough studies on the government supported R&D projects. This study analyzed 6,478 projects from the R&D innovation programs for SMEs managed by the Small and Medium Business Administration(SMBA) for the period from 2004 to 2010 (seven years). These projects were judged as either technically success or failure after the R&D projects finished. From the statistical analysis, we found the followings : First, the number of employees came out to be a significant factor to success of the R&D projects. This means that the companies which have certain number of researchers are more likely to succeed in the R&D projects. Furthermore, the type of companies(Venture/Non-venture) also had significant influence on the success of the projects. Venture companies tend to be more successful in their project than non-venture companies. Second, geographical locations(Metropolitan/Non-Metropolitan) of companies didn't have significant effect on success of the R&D projects. Third, technology fields(electricity and electronics, mechanical materials, information and communication, chemistry, bio-medical, knowledge and services, energy resources) didn't play an important role in the success of the R&D projects. Fourth, the period length of R&D projects were found to influence on the success rate. Namely, the shorter the periods were, the higher the success rates were. This effect came out from the fact that SMEs didn’t have enough strength to continue long-term R&D projects. Therefore, companies which undertook short-term projects had higher probability to succeed than those which had long-term projects. This means that it is better for SMEs to apply and perform short-term projects for success. In this study, debt ratio of the companies performing R&D projects had little effect on the success rate of the projects. This result contradicts with previous studies that shows that companies with high debt ratio are more likely to fail in R&D projects; the success rate is negatively correlated with debt ratio. The result can be caused by the fact that the samples in this study are confined to the SMEs which are relatively in poor financial conditions and have little difference in the financial structure among them. Moreover, while the number of permanent employees was identified as one of significant factors to successful R&D projects, it requires more studies on why the number of employees make the difference. That is, a further study on the corelation analysis directly with the number of research staff in the companies will be helpful for better understanding of success factors in the R&D projects.; During the past 10 years Korea’s national budget for Research and Development(R&D) has increased more than ten percent on annual average and in 2012 alone 16 trillion won will be spent in R&D investment. Along with this quantitative growth of national budget, it is time to pay more attention to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of those government supported research. Therefore, it is timely and meaningful to evaluate the governmental support for R&D and determine the key factors to success of the R&D projects in order to suggest a desirable direction of the national R&D policy. According to government’s technology development programs, various R&D projects are designed to support small and medium sized enterprises(SME). To investigate and evaluate the R&D projects for SMEs is more important than ever because SMEs now account for 99% of total number of all the companies in Korea and employees in the SMEs are about 88% of total working people in Korea. In this study, the characteristics(company size and type, and technological environment, and financial structure) of SMEs which performed government R&D projects were analyzed to identify what factors contributed to the success of those projects. Different factors were also tested to find relationship with success of the projects. Those factors are various nature of research projects such as fields of technologies, application type(free/designated), applicants type(single company/ consortium) and period of R&D projects. While studies in the past are mainly on the technological success and investment decision of R&D in the private sector, there were not enough studies on the government supported R&D projects. This study analyzed 6,478 projects from the R&D innovation programs for SMEs managed by the Small and Medium Business Administration(SMBA) for the period from 2004 to 2010 (seven years). These projects were judged as either technically success or failure after the R&D projects finished. From the statistical analysis, we found the followings : First, the number of employees came out to be a significant factor to success of the R&D projects. This means that the companies which have certain number of researchers are more likely to succeed in the R&D projects. Furthermore, the type of companies(Venture/Non-venture) also had significant influence on the success of the projects. Venture companies tend to be more successful in their project than non-venture companies. Second, geographical locations(Metropolitan/Non-Metropolitan) of companies didn't have significant effect on success of the R&D projects. Third, technology fields(electricity and electronics, mechanical materials, information and communication, chemistry, bio-medical, knowledge and services, energy resources) didn't play an important role in the success of the R&D projects. Fourth, the period length of R&D projects were found to influence on the success rate. Namely, the shorter the periods were, the higher the success rates were. This effect came out from the fact that SMEs didn’t have enough strength to continue long-term R&D projects. Therefore, companies which undertook short-term projects had higher probability to succeed than those which had long-term projects. This means that it is better for SMEs to apply and perform short-term projects for success. In this study, debt ratio of the companies performing R&D projects had little effect on the success rate of the projects. This result contradicts with previous studies that shows that companies with high debt ratio are more likely to fail in R&D projects