Most studies analysing the relationship between R&D and firm growth focus on total R&D investment. This paper aims to analyse separately each component of R&D investment (basic research, applied research and technological development) and evaluate how these types of R&D investment are related to firm growth. Using a sample of 3972 Spanish manufacturing firms during 2004–2015, our empirical results are the following. First, firms have heterogeneous R&D strategies. The common wisdom that young firms invest in basic research, while old firms invest in applied research, is not supported in our data. Second, we investigate the characteristics and dynamics of firms with different R&D strategies. We observe complementarities between applied research and technological development due to their positive associations with firm growth. Finally, our results show that there is a tendency for firms to transition from basic research to applied research.

大多数分析 R&D 与企业成长之间关系的研究都集中在 R&D 总投资上。本文旨在分别分析研发投资的各个组成部分（基础研究、应用研究和技术开发），并评估这些类型的研发投资与企业成长的关系。使用 2004-2015 年 3972 家西班牙制造企业的样本，我们的实证结果如下。首先，企业有异质的研发战略。我们的数据不支持年轻公司投资于基础研究而老公司投资于应用研究的普遍观点。其次，我们调查了具有不同研发战略的公司的特征和动态。我们观察到应用研究和技术发展之间的互补性，因为它们与公司增长存在正相关。