Two-stage R&D efficiency evaluation from the perspective of national innovation system

Following the approaching of knowledge economy, countries worldwide pay increasing attention on technology innovation; especially at the time of a changing global economical and trade environment, technology has great influence on national competitiveness. Hence, regardless of the establishment of technological policy, the investment of R&D funds and manpower, they are all closely connected to national overall objectives, which have crucial impact on the promotion of national competitiveness. This research is an exploratory study, mainly combining competitiveness index and NIS to establish a two-stage R&D efficiency evaluation model. We gathered the information from World Competitiveness Yearbook made public by IMD, Main Science and Technology Indicators (MSTI) from OECD, statistical data from US Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO), CD-ROM data of National Science Indicators (NSI) published by International Statistical Institute (ISI) and used two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) to analyze 15 countries´ R&D efficiency and its ranking in evaluation. The research found the R&D activities in six countries on technological objectives are effective after applicable NIS determined.