Research and development (R&D) cost as a percentage of revenue
This measure calculates research and development (R&D) cost as a percentage of revenue. R&D cost includes all cost elements—including labor costs, material costs, allocations of depreciation, and other overhead costs—consumed for research and development activities. Research is a planned search and exploration for discovering new knowledge; development translates research findings and other knowledge into plans/designs for new products, services, or processes, or existing product improvements. This measure is part of a set of Supplemental Information measures that help companies evaluate additional variables not covered elsewhere for the "develop and manage products and services" process.
Benchmark Data
25th | Median | 75th |
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Compute this Measure
Units for this measure are percent.
R&D cost as a percentage of revenue
Key Terms
Total annual revenue is net proceeds generated from the sale of products or services. This should reflect the selling price less any allowances such as quantity, discounts, rebates and returns. If your business entity is a support unit and therefore does not directly generate revenue, then provide the revenue amount for the units you support. For government/non-profit organizations, please use your non-pass-through budget. For insurance companies the total annual revenue is the total amount of direct written premiums, excluding net investment income. Note: Business entity revenue needs to only include inter-company business segment revenue when the transactions between those business segments are intended to reflect an arm's length transfer price and would therefore meet the regulatory requirements for external revenue reporting.
Supplemental information is data that APQC determines is relevant to decision support for a specific process, but does not fit into the other measure categories such as cost effectiveness, cycle time, or staff productivity.