Efficiency of innovative research and development among advanced countries based on the two-stage data envelopment analysis

This study explores innovative research and development efficiency driven by the industry and the higher education sectors in advanced countries with a dynamic two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. According to the results, we evaluate the contribution of each country’s innovation research and development (R&D) activities to national productivity. Among them, Luxembourg has the highest overall efficiency while Germany is relatively the least. Furthermore, most countries perform better in the national productivity stage than in the innovation R&D stage. Significant differences among countries in the innovation efficiency of industry and higher education are found, and the difference in Japan is pronounced. Overall, the efficiency of the industrial innovation R&D stage is slightly lower than that of the higher education one. The results show that improving the efficiency of R&D personnel is the key to enhancing overall innovation efficiency, and the relevant policy recommendations to promote economic growth and technological progress are also provided in this study.