3.1. Dependent variable – firm growthGrowth is the primary goal of publicly traded firms and is also a proximal outcome of proactively managed R&D expenditures (Coad & Rao, 2010; Klette & Griliches, 2000). Similar to Mudambi and Swift (2011), we also use sales growth as the outcome variable. The firms' growth is the annual percentage growth in sales from the previous year.