ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS WHY IS WORLD AGRIBUSINESS R&D DECLINING DESPITE INCREASED DEMAND FOR FOOD AND BIOFUELS?

This paper examines the reason why the R&D expenditure of private agribusiness companies remains unchanged in the last decade despite of the growth in demand for food and biofuels. I review the background of worldwide food demand and agribusiness R&D undertaken by the private sector, as well as a literature on the private agricultural R&D, including induced innovation theory, important determinants of R&D and the relationship between public and private R&D. We undertake an empirical investigation of the roles played by a series of determinants of innovation system and R&D activities in private companies. We apply the concept of induced innovation in response to factors changes. We identify a total of 47 agribusiness companies which have R&D data from 1994 to 2007, including 36 US- based companies and other 11 international corporations. The result shows that decreasing government R&D input and companies size in agribusiness marketing and increasing four-firm concentration ratio might be the main reasons to lead to decreased private sector R&D activities; biotechnology patents, food price index and index of worldwide intellectual property protection are not significant in determining the R&D and its intensity. ii