THE IMPACT OF QUALITY IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS ON ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY IN ROMANIA. A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Research and development (R&D) efforts have a great impact on the performance of companies. However, the costs and time frame are difficult to anticipate. Evaluation of research and development (R&D) activity assumes many aspects related to the size of efforts and the quantification of their effects on entrepreneurial activity, which can be achieved by aggregating several economic indicators. The effectiveness of R&D can be regarded from various perspectives: the extent to which it supports the increase in company performance, the time frame in which such performance appears, and from the standpoint of the degree to which research activities uphold performance at its maximum efficiency point. This empirical research aims to conduct a comparative study at the Romanian level on the impact of research activity carried out within three reputable research environments: the private (business) environment, the government (public) environment, and the university environment. The study aims to differentiate between the results of these environments. This quantitative research has been carried out based on data processed by regression analysis extracted from three different sources and covers the time interval 2005-2022. The findings show that the research results referring to the private environment are visible in the current year, whereas the effects exhibit volatility in the following years. University environment research can be regarded as the most effective as it yields a subsequent constant increase of the effects on the entrepreneurial environment over the following three years subjected to analysis, while the measured intensity of its impact is clearly superior to that of the other research environments: private and governmental.