Research and Development (R&D)

Research and Development is an actual pre-planned investigation with the expectation of gaining new scientific or technical knowledge that can convert into a scheme or formulation for manufacturing/supply/trading etc. resulting in a business advantage.

R&D's cost is debited in the income statement as an expense/capitalized in the relevant assets (depending upon the nature of R&D) of that period they incurred. Its cost, once written off, can’t be reinstated. Many countries have specific guidelines and accounting standards for implementing research and development.

There are three types of R&D.

#1 - Basic Research

Basic research is a theoretical approach to any subject. This objective aims to get complete knowledge and understanding of one special subject, not a practical situation. This research is also called pure or fundamental research.

#2 - Applied Research

This objective aims to get complete knowledge and understanding of one special subject in a practical situation. This research is an inverse of basic research. This research is formulated to solve a practical problem.

#3 - Development Research

This Research is a combination of applied and basic research. This research will be implemented after getting knowledge and understanding of a specific task/subject from the basic and applied research.

• R&D has increased the productivity of goods and services manufactured/traded/supplied by an entity.
• It has increased the income or profitability of an entity after analysis of costs such as manufacturing/selling/general expenses, which expenses can be reduced to a certain level so that income or profitability can be increased.
• Governments of some countries motivate industries/entities for Research and development of their goods and supplies and provide taxes benefits.
• Positive Research and development (R&D) increases the goodwill of an entity’s product and services.
• Gained new knowledge and understanding from research and development, an entity can start a new business plan and find opportunities.
• The company can increase the business volumes in the market after researching the present market scenario basis. It will increase the revenue and profitability of the company. What are the customers expecting from the goods and services provided by the company?
• The company wants to borrow money before providing documents to the lender. In that case, management should analyze the lender's profile, future forecasting about changes in the rate of interest, which country's economy is impacting the lender's business, etc., and after gaining all the relevant knowledge and understanding.
• Positive R&D outcomes can increase the long-term benefits of investments in the entity.
• An entity can use available human resources at an optimum level.
• It can control the risk such as Operational Risk, Management Risk, Financial risk and investing risk after analyzing the relevant vertical scenario.

• Research and development have increased the cost of the company. Its outcomes can be positive and negative.
• Separate Manpower to be hired by the entity for doing R&D and this will increase the cost of the company.
• It is a very difficult process, and highly experienced and well–qualified human resources are required to do the research and development (R&D).
• It can produce artificial outcomes.
• Failure in R&D will not be increased in sales volume and revenue as well.
• Whether an Entity gets positive or negative outcomes, Product costs are increased by the R&D cost, and increases in product prices can be decreased in sales volume.

• Outcomes/findings/results of research and development can be positive or negative and artificial.
• Selection of the type of R&D is very difficult until human resources can’t understand the current market scenario.
• Company cost will be incurred on all type of R&D whether its outcomes are positive or negative.
• The risk involved in these projects and the company should have a sufficient budget to expose the risk and timelines set by the team.
• Sometimes research and development can be terminated in the middle because of changes in the political scenario, new market competitors, or declined prices.

• The objective is to obtain new scientific and technical knowledge and understanding.
• The entity should have a plan, budget, stipulated time and human resource to complete the research and development on time.
• If Entity gets positive outcomes, it should patent it to achieve future economic benefits.
• The entity should hire highly experienced and well–qualified manpower to fulfill the requirement and get positive outcomes.
• An entity should purchase the latest machinery technology for doing research and development.
• It requires a sufficient upfront budget to do the research and development.
• Negative outcomes can decrease the market's goodwill/brand image/reputation.
• The market is very volatile, and some human resources should be used to know the updated changes in the market so that entities can change the quality of the product, costing, and design as per updated changes.
• An entity should fix its product prices after verifying the market price and quality of a similar product; otherwise, the company will lose sales volume, revenue, and profitability.

This has been a guide to what is Research and Development (R&D) and its definition. Here we discuss the three types of R&D along with the advantages and disadvantages. You can learn more from the following articles –

• Quantitative Research
• Minimum Viable Product
• Scenario Planning
• Administrative Overhead