| Dependent variables | Patent (1 or 0) | For technological output, it indicates whether a principal firm had applied for over one patent from each R&D project until the end of 2015. |
| Commercialization (1 or 0) | For commercial output, it indicates whether a principal firm had reported success in commercialization from the R&D project until the end of 2015. |
| Independent variables | Zombie status | 1 if every interest-coverage ratio is below one over the past three years (2012–2014), otherwise 0. |
| Industry with lower zombie share | 1 if the zombie share of a technological field is less than the average zombie share across all fields, otherwise 0. |
| Government fund | Project funding a firm receives from the government (in US 100 K dollars). |
| Project duration | Duration of each R&D project (in years). |
| Collaboration structure | Number of partners who participated in each R&D project. |
| Technology readiness level | Technology Readiness Level (TRL) which consists of 9 stages; 1–2 (basic), 3–4 (experimental), 5–6 (prototype), 7–8 (production), 9 (commercialization). |
| Technological field | 1 (machine), 2 (electronics), 3 (information technology), 4 (chemical), 5 (bio), 6 (energy), 7 (knowledge service), 8 (ceramics). |