Business enterprise R&D (BERD) accounts for the bulk of research and development (R&D) activity in OECD countries in terms of both performance and funding. In 2007, R&D performed by the business sector reached USD 616.8 billion (in current PPP), or close to 70% of total R&D. The United States accounted for around 43% of OECD-area BERD. The EU and Japan accounted for 27% and 19%, respectively.

Between 1997 and 2007, OECD-area BERD grew by USD 160 billion (in PPP of 2000). The United States accounted for almost 40% of the growth, and Japan for around 20%. In 2007 BERD in China reached USD 74 billion (in current PPP), or about 45% of BERD in the EU, up from around 7% ten years earlier.

Among OECD countries, Iceland, Portugal and Turkey experienced strong growth of BERD during the last decade, in excess of 10% a year. Outside the OECD area, both China and Estonia had growth rates above 20% a year in real terms. The Slovak Republic is the only country among those surveyed to have experienced a decline of BERD in real terms during the period (almost 10% per year).

In the three main OECD regions, business R&D intensity (R&D expenditure relative to value added in industry) increased from the mid-1990s to 2000. Since then, it has risen strongly in Japan (to 3.7% in 2007), but remained stable in the European Union (around 1.8%). In the United States, after a drop in the early 2000s (2.8% in 2004), it climbed to 3.1% in 2007. Business R&D intensity is well above the OECD average of 2.4% in all Nordic countries except Norway, but particularly in Sweden (4.5%) and Finland (4.0%).

Source

OECD, Main Science and Technology Indicators Database, June 2009.

Going further

OECD (2002), Frascati Manual: Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys on Research and Experimental Development, OECD, Paris, www.oecd.org/sti/frascatimanual.