Is corporate science growing or declining?

The topic of corporate involvement in science has been extensively researched in the innovation literature. However, there is no consensus on whether the trend is on the rise or decline, as various studies have reported contradictory findings. This research aims to bridge this gap by analysing the scientific publication activity over time of a large multi-country and multi-sector sample of firms. The findings of the study indicate that corporate science has grown in the period from 2011 to 2015. However, this growth has only been in absolute terms, as the overall growth of publications in science has been greater. The study also found significant variations in corporate science activity across different sectors. It is important to note, however, that the results may be highly sensitive to the methodological choices, which makes it difficult to compare findings from different studies or make definitive conclusions about the phenomenon.