The performance evaluation of regional R&D investments in China: An application of DEA based on the first official China economic census data

R&D (Research and Development) activities represent the basic core of corporate science and technology activities, and play a crucial role in enhancing the ability of companies to achieve rapid and sustainable growth. In recent years, the total R&D investments in China have increased significantly and the proportion of the industrial investments in R&D activities relative to national R&D investments has increased rapidly. In order to investigate the effectiveness of these R&D investments, we utilize Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models to evaluate the relative efficiencies of 30 regional R&D investments using the First Official China Economic Census Data in 2004. Our investigation and study indicate the following: (1) Only six provinces are global technical efficient and the performance of regional R&D investments in China needs to improve dramatically. (2) Increasing returns to scale have not yet occurred in any province. Constant returns to scale have prevailed in most provinces in the Western region, and decreasing returns to scale have prevailed in most provinces in the Eastern and Central regions. (3) There are no direct relationships between global technical efficiency and the amount of R&D investment. The Western region has the highest average radial efficiency score, followed by the Eastern region, and then by the Central region. (4) The Eastern region has advantages in local technical efficiency, the Western region has advantages in scale efficiency, while the Central region has neither technical efficiency advantages nor scale efficiency advantages. Suggestions are proposed to improve efficiencies of regional R&D investments.