Can R&D expenditure avoid corporate bankruptcy? Comparison between Japanese machinery and electric equipment industries using DEA–discriminant analysis

This study compares data envelopment analysis–discriminant analysis (DEA–DA) with Altman’s financial ratio analysis to identify the position of DEA–DA in financial performance analysis. Then, this study applies DEA–DA to examine whether Research and Development (R&D) expenditure influences the financial performance of Japanese machinery industry and electric equipment industry. The investigation of DEA–DA identifies that the R&D expenditure makes a positive impact on the financial performance of Japanese machinery industry, but it yields a negative impact on Japanese electric equipment industry. The result implies that the influence of R&D expenditure on financial performance (including the avoidance of bankruptcy) depends upon the type of a manufacturing industry. A rationale regarding why such a discrepancy has occurred between the two Japanese manufacturing industries is because the life cycle of electric equipments is shorter than that of the machinery products. Furthermore, the electric equipment industry faces more fierce competition than the machinery industry. This study suggests that the Japanese electric equipment industry needs R&D expenditure for competition in its global market. However, it is a high risk and high return investment. In contrast, the Japanese machinery is a technologically mature industry where the R&D expenditure influences positively its financial performance. In this sense, the R&D expenditure is a low risk and necessary investment.