This paper contains two essays about firms` R&D activities. The first essay examines two approaches which suggest different explanatory variables to determine firms` R&D investment: Approaches in ownership structure theory and economics of technology. An empirical study is performed to test the validity of each variable. The result of regression analysis suggests that the key factor is firms` technological competence. When this variable is included in the regression, the coefficients of explanatory variables from ownership structure theory become statistically insignificant. The second essay investigates the relation of ownership concentration and firm`s R&D productivity measured by number of patents. The results in three different regression models show that the more concentrated ownership, the greater firm`s R&D productivity.
