研究與發展雖需投入相當多的資源，但此投入卻可能對企業創造出更高之附加價值是企業提升競爭力的一項主要活動。公司治理雖以監督公司管理階層為重點，但最終目的仍在於增加公司價值。研究與發展支出與公司治理之目標均為一致，故本研究針對公司治理機制是否會影響企業研發投入（支出）之決策，進行實證分析。樣本期間自民國九十年至九十六年，依台灣證券交易所之分類將產業分成十八項（不含金融保險）。本研究從公司成立時間、股權結構、董監事組成、董事會規模與董事長兼任總經理等不同構面與架構，形成公司治理的綜合性指標，以該指標衡量投資研究發展的程度。研究結果發現：高科技產業與傳統產業間，公司成立時間與研究發展投入的確有所不同。而傳統產業董監事持股比例較高與研究發展支出成正比，董監事不僅關注公司的價值，同時也負起監督管理階層的責任。以監督角度而言，只有傳統產業獨立董事人數（外部董事人數）越高與研究及發展支出成正比。普遍認為當董事會中如果非內部董事比率較高時，其較有效率的執行監督管理之責。經過研究後發現傳統產業中外部董事愈高時會傾向較支持研究發展的支出，高科技產業則否。

Though costly, R&D is an important activity that the firm rely on enhance their competitiveness. While good corporate governance practices could result in better management efficiency and disclosure, the ultimate goal of these practices is to enhance firm value. In this thesis used to examine the influence of corporate governance on the R&D activity. Our purpose is trying to explore where weather Corporate Governance indexes would have explanation of performance research and development expense or not. The templates aimed at enterprises on market from 2001 to 2007 except financial business data and insufficient data. The corporate governance factors that the study used are the percentage of directors’ shareholding, the average size of a board, and the dual appointment of board chairperson and CEO. The findings of this study are summarized as follows. First, there have differences in time from set up and research and development expense between high technology firms and traditional firms in corporate governance factors. Percentage of directors’ shareholding and research and development expense exist difference on traditional firms in corporate governance factors. Percentage of directors’ shareholding not pay attentions to the value of company, but hold responsibility of manage and supervise. For supervising, we find out that only the percentage of independent directors in board of directors has positive effect on R＆D Expense on traditional firms. The function of supervising is better when the percentage of independent directors in board of directors is higher. In addition, they can predict the largest stockholder’s negative effect. When the percentage of independent directors in board of directors on traditional firms is higher that support research and development expense.