Real effects of capitalized research and development expenditures: a leading indicator for future innovation performance?

Abstract This paper analyzes the relationship between capitalized Research and Development (R&D) expenditures under IFRS and innovation performance measured by patent data. Under IFRS, development expenditures are capitalized when the success of an R&D investment is highly likely. Hence, such capitalization could be a leading indicator for future innovation performance. We analyze this question based on a hand-collected sample of R&D capitalization data under IFRS and patent data from the European Patent Office’s Worldwide Patent Statistical Database. We find that the capitalization rate of R&D is positively related to future patent applications and citations as measures of future innovation performance. We also find a positive association with measures of future financial performance. The results imply that the rate of R&D capitalization is informative and can be considered a leading indicator for future innovation performance.