Evaluation of capabilities and spinoffs generated by R&D programs, the IAC's sugarcane program

Author(s)

Mirian Hasegawa

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Geociências
• Defense date: 2005-11-08

Examining board members

André Tosi Furtado; Marcos Guimarães de Andrade Landell; Ligia Maria Soto Urbina; Jose Vitor Bomtempo; Sergio Luiz Monteiro Salles Filho

• Advisor: André Tosi Furtado

Abstract

This thesis aims at developing a methodology for evaluation of the impacts of R&D programs. This methodology incorporates the analysis of capabilities and spinoffs - results that were not predicted in the objectives of the program. The methodology is applied to an R&D program executed by an agricultural research institute: the sugar-cane breeding program of the Agronomic Institute (PROCANA). The objective is to contribute to the understanding of the transformation of knowledge and capabilities (generated inside R&D programs) into economics results. The clearest result of R&D is the innovation directly related to the initial objectives of the project and whose diffusion generates several economic impacts. The most "obscure" result of R&D (but not less important) is the application of the capabilities and knowledge created and learned during the program to solve other problems (which are external to the scope of the program). These "obscure" products constitute the indirect results of the research. They generate relevant economic impacts, which, in turn, can and must be measured in order to assess the real importance of the investment in R&D. The proposed methodology of evaluation is made of a set of three methodologies. Two of them are developed in the thesis: one to identify and measure the creation or deepening of capabilities among the participants of an R&D program, and the other to map the flow and the transformation of knowledge during the execution of such a program, and also the spinoffs generated in this process. Moreover, the economic impacts of the program are quantified by using the methodology created by the Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Apliquée (BETA) from the University of Strasbourg. The three methodologies are complementary and have links among themselves. Together they form a tool that is able to assess the economic impacts of an R&D program, the capabilities created and the process of generation of spinoffs. The application of this tool to the PROCANA demonstrated that this program generated important impacts, both in the creation of capabilities and in the economic results. The PROCANA was responsible for the creation of six spinoffs, which generated an economic impact that was 51 times larger than the one due to the major innovation. The methodology here developed was able to create the link between competences and economic result, in such way that it was possible to show how much of the economic impact was due to the capabilities generated by the program. The mapping of the knowledge conversion during the process of spinoffs creation shed lights on the factors that contribute to this process. The proximity of the IAC research institute with the users of its technology was the main factor behind the initial impulse for the creation of the spinoffs. Other aspect that could be observed was that the spinoffs are mainly new combinations of knowledge that already existed inside the program, and not the creation of new knowledge. Also important was the PROCANA's strategy of exploiting its capabilities to respond to the opportunities introduced by the market, 50 that it could find new funding sources (AU)