Why Do R&D Superstars Differ? An Empirical Analysis of the World’s Top R&D Investors

Abstract Why do R&D superstar firms—the elite few that consistently dominate global R&D investment—differ in their innovation performance? This study decomposes the variance in R&D outcomes into firm-, industry-, and institution-level effects using the strategy tripod framework. Using the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard data of 3,444 firms from 2011 to 2022 (24,107 firm–year obs.), we introduce two novel performance metrics (i) Return on Research Capital (RORC) and (ii) Price-to-Research Ratio (PRR)in addition to (iii) R&D Intensity to capture both input- and output-based dimensions of R&D success. The results show that firm-specific effects primarily drive R&D Intensity, while industry and institutional factors explain greater variability in RORC and PRR, particularly among publicly listed firms. These findings suggest that the performance of R&D superstars is not solely firm-centric but shaped by sectoral and institutional contexts. By integrating the strategy tripod with multidimensional measures of R&D performance, this study advances understanding of what sustains superior corporate research outcomes.