The Impact of R&D Innovation Success on the Relationship between R&D Investment and Financial Leverage
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This is well-written paper, addressing the relationships between R&D investment, financial leverage, and a firm's R&D innovation success. The research is well designed, the theoretical framework is clearly presented,and the methods employed for empirical analysis is suitable for the topic. The authors have a good understanding of the relevant literature in this field and cite a suitable range of sources. The results are analysed appropriately, and the conclusions adequately tie together the other elements of the paper. The authors express their viewpoint clearly, employing an adequate structure and correct format.
Given that the study is extensive and thorough, I suggest to enrich the Conclusion section by providing explicit policy recommendations for decision makers.
In sum, the paper contains new and significant information.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer One,
Thank you for your insightful and thorough review of our manuscript. We deeply appreciate your positive feedback on our work and we are thankful for your expert guidance and encouragement.
Your suggestion to enrich the conclusion by providing explicit policy recommendations for decision makers is highly relevant and extremely useful. We have followed your suggestion in full – please see Section 6: Conclusions of the revised manuscript.
Thank you once again for your very valuable contribution to our paper.
Best wishes
Author Team
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper explores the interrelationship between R&D investment, financial leverage, and a firm's R&D innovation success by employing a sample of UK and EU companies. The manuscript is interesting and well-written. My only concern regards introduction that, in my opinion, should be substantially re-written to further improve the quality of the paper. Indeed, the Authors should stress the relevance of the topic analysed and, above all, the novelty of their contribution. Where should the present work be placed within the literature? What is the gap(s) it intends to fill? What are the novel aspects compared to extant literature? The kind of data used? The countries analysed or what else? These issues are currently completely missing.
Finally, there are many blank spaces across the paper. Please review them.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer Two
Thank you for your detailed and highly insightful review of our manuscript. We deeply appreciate your positive feedback on our work and we are thankful for your expert guidance and encouragement.
Point One: We have responded to your excellent suggestion to enrich the Introduction by addressing the following issues which you prompted us to consider:
What is the relevance of the topic analyzed?
What is the novelty of our contributions?
Where does our work fit in the literature?
What are the gaps which our work addresses?
What are the novel aspects of our work compared to extant literature?
What kind of data is used?
What countries are analyzed?
We now address each of these questions in our revised Introduction. Please see: Section 1: Introduction.
Point Two:
We have now eliminated any unnecessary blank spaces. Thank you for highlighting this issue.
Thank you once again for your very valuable contribution to our paper.
Best wishes
Author Team
