This paper investigates the structural change of the major economies through the lens of the leading global corporate R&D investors. Moreover, we explore the relationship between R&D intensity, capital intensity and profitability and R&D investment growth for young and old firms. Contrary to common understanding, our results show that in the EU the R&D distribution between sectors has changed – similar to the USA; however, the USA has experienced a very strong shift towards ICT-related sectors, which makes its change more visible. Both the EU and the USA have experienced a slower pace of structural change than emerging economies. Our results also indicate that capital and R&D intensity may have a complementary effect on long-term R&D performance, which can vary according to a firm’s age. The specific nature of the sample allows us to link our results to the Schumpeterian waves of innovation and the changes of techno-economic paradigms rather than alternative interpretation of management literature. Policy implications are discussed accordingly.

本文通过全球领先的企业研发投资者的视角研究主要经济体的结构变化。此外，我们探讨了新老企业的研发强度、资本密集度和盈利能力与研发投资增长之间的关系。与普遍的理解相反，我们的结果表明，在欧盟，部门之间的研发分布发生了变化——类似于美国；然而，美国经历了向 ICT 相关行业的强烈转变，这使得其变化更加明显。与新兴经济体相比，欧盟和美国都经历了较慢的结构变化步伐。我们的结果还表明，资本和研发强度可能对长期研发绩效产生互补影响，这可能会因公司的年龄而异。样本的特殊性质使我们能够将我们的结果与熊彼特的创新浪潮和技术经济范式的变化联系起来，而不是对管理文献的替代解释。相应地讨论了政策影响。