Trade and Innovation in Services: Evidence from a Developing Economy

Studies on innovation and international trade have traditionally focused on manufacturing because neither was seen as important for services. Moreover, the few existing studies on services focus only on industrial countries, even though in many developing countries services are already the largest sector in the economy and an important determinant of overall productivity growth. Using a recent firm‐level innovation survey for Chile to compare the manufacturing and ‘tradable’ services sector, this paper reveals some novel patterns. First, even though services firms have on average a much lower propensity to export than manufacturing firms, services exports are less dominated by large firms and tend to be more skill intensive than manufacturing exports. Second, services firms appear to be as innovative as – and in some cases more innovative than – manufacturing firms, in terms of both inputs and outputs of ‘technological’ innovative activity, even though services innovations more often take a ‘non‐technological’ form. Third, services exporters (like manufacturing exporters) tend to be significantly more innovative than non‐exporters, with a wider gap for innovations close to the global technological frontier. These findings suggest that the growing faith in services as a source of both trade and innovative dynamism may not be misplaced.     

Exports,firm size,and firm dynamics

This paper explores the relationships between exports, firm size, and firm dynamics. It is based on a unique longitudinal data set collected at the establishment level, covering some 7000 manufacturing German firms. We present stylized facts on exports and firm size, showing that the probability that a firm is an exporter increases with firm size; however, there are many successful exporters among small firms, and non-exporters among larger firms, too, while most of the exports are from the top size groups of firms. An econometric study shows a picture that is consistent with theoretical considerations: The impact of firm size on exports is positive but decreasing, while human capital intensity, domestic market share, and advanced technology all have a positive influence on the export performance of a firm. Firm growth and export performance are positively related, as is expected from a model of a price-discriminating monopolist.     

Experience,age and exporting performance in UK SMEs

We consider the determinants of SME exporting performance using a survey of internationally engaged UK SMEs. We first develop a model incorporating organisational and prior managerial learning effects. Our empirical analysis then allows us to identify separately the positive effects on exporting from the international experience of the firm and the negative effects of firm age. Positive exporting effects also result from grafted knowledge – acquired by the recruitment of management with prior international experience. Innovation also has positive exporting effects with more radical new-to-the-industry innovation most strongly linked to inter-regional exports; new-to-the-firm innovation is more strongly linked to intra-regional trade. Early internationalisation is also linked positively to the number of countries to which firms export and the intensity of their export activity. We find no evidence, however, relating early internationalisation to extra-regional exporting, suggesting that early-exporting SMEs tend be ‘born regional’ rather than ‘born global’.     

The Impacts of Alignment with Global Product Standards on Exports of Firms in Developing Countries

Complying with global standards and technical norms can be costly, making them potential impediments to trade, but it can also expand export opportunities. Two policies available to governments are alignment of domestic technical regulations with international standards and entry into mutual recognition agreements (MRAs). We study the effects of such decisions on the volume of exports to developed markets by firms in developing countries, using data from a World Bank firm‐level survey of awareness of global product norms. Both standards alignment and MRAs are associated with more exports to developed countries, but only MRAs significantly promote exports. This finding is consistent with theoretical predictions that MRAs should reduce the fixed costs of exporting more than standards alignment, permitting more firms to enter export markets in higher volumes. Governments in developing countries hoping to encourage exports may wish to favour the negotiation of mutual recognition of testing and certification procedures with major trading partners as a more affirmative avenue to expanding international sales.     

Barriers to Exporting: What are They and Who do They Matter to?

The international trade literatures on gravity modelling and firm‐level export behaviour have established that nontariff barriers are important impediments to international trade flows. In this paper, we provide fresh evidence on the actual barriers to exports firms face and how they vary with firm‐level characteristics. Our results indicate that the higher the export experience of firms the lower are the trade costs they face. These barriers are not related to other firm‐level characteristics, such as productivity and size, found by the literature to be associated with export market entry. Overall, these results suggest the existence of a process of learning to export whereby firms learn how to cope with export barriers through direct experience in export markets.     

Spillovers through backward linkages and the export performance of business services. Evidence from a sample of Italian firms

We provide evidence on the role of spillovers through vertical linkages in service firms’ internationalisation process. We combine input–output coefficients with region-level information on downstream manufacturing sector exports to build a measure of spillovers through backward linkages, which we assess as a systematic determinant of Italian BS firms’ export status. Once considered firm and sector specificities, export spillovers especially matter for exporting to high-income economies outside Europe. This finding originates from higher sunk costs stemming from greater distance to the destination market and tougher competition within the destination market. Furthermore, the spillovers’ geographical scope is mainly local. We thus contribute to international business theory by generalising existing evidence from case studies on the importance of buyer–supplier relationships for service firms’ internationalisation across several BS sectors. Our research carries important implications for international business practices as well, as joining networks with internationalised customers may play an important role in enhancing BS firms’ exports, regardless of the BS supplied.     

Organizational innovation,technological innovation,and export performance: The effects of innovation radicalness and extensiveness

This study focuses on the relevance of different types of innovation for firms’ export performance. Despite ample research on the innovation–performance relationship, previous studies have mainly focused on technological innovations, leaving the effects of organizational innovations relatively unexplored. Hypotheses on the relationship between organizational and technological innovations and firm export performance are tested by structural equation modelling using data from 218 Swedish export ventures. The results indicate that organizational innovation enhances export performance both directly and indirectly by sustaining technological innovation. Moreover, by fine-graining our analysis of the mediating role of technological innovation, according to its radicalness and extensiveness, for organizational innovation, we show how the latter enhances both the radicalness and extensiveness of technological innovation although, notably, only extensiveness is actually beneficial for export performance. This study helps alleviate the scarcity of research examining the links among different types of innovation in relation to export performance and contributes to international business and marketing literature by generating new evidence regarding the mechanisms through which organizational and technological innovations may improve export performance.     

Firm Size and Innovation in European Manufacturing

The paper investigates the differences between small, medium-sized and large firms regarding their performance in the introduction of new products and processes. After a review of the relevant literature, two models are proposed and tested in search for different business strategies and innovation inputs connected to product and process innovations. The empirical analysis uses innovation survey (CIS 2) data at the industry level for 22 manufacturing sectors, broken down in three firm size classes, for eight European countries. Special attention is devoted to tackling the issues of possible endogeneity of the regressors and of unobserved sectoral heterogeneity. The results – strengthening the findings of previous studies – show that product and process innovations, though having some complementarities, are associated to different innovative inputs and strategies pursued by firms. Systematic differences also emerge between the behaviour of large firms and SMEs.      

How Do Exporters React to Changes in Cost Competitiveness?

Various international institutions such as the European Commission, the ECB and the OECD often use unit labour costs as a measure of international competitiveness. The goal of this paper was to examine how well this measure is related to international export performance at the firm level. To this end, we use Belgian firm‐level data for the period 1999 to 2010 to analyse the impact of unit labour costs on exports. We find an estimated elasticity of the intensive margin of exports with respect to unit labour costs between −0.2 and −0.4. This elasticity varies between sectors and between firms, with more labour‐intensive firms having a higher elasticity. The microdata also enable us to analyse the impact of unit labour costs on the extensive margin. Our results show that higher unit labour costs reduce the probability of starting to export for non‐exporters and increase the probability of exporters stopping. While our results show that unit labour costs have an impact on the intensive margin and extensive margin of firm‐level exports, the effect is rather low, suggesting that pass‐through of costs into prices is limited. The latter is consistent with recent trade models emphasising that not only relative costs, but also demand factors such as quality and taste matter for explaining firm‐level exports.     

Exporting status and success in innovation: evidence from CIS micro data for EU countries

Using a large sample of micro data from four waves of Community Innovation Survey for EU member states, we investigate the relationship between firms’ export status and different sorts of innovation activities. We find systematically positive relationship between the two, whereby the strongest correlation is found in case of product innovation and the weakest in case of organizational innovations. While aggregate data show that innovation success is increasing in firm size, we find that exporting has the strongest effect on innovation in the medium-sized firms. We also explore cross-country differences in the impact of export status on innovation. Countries with a higher share of exports in GDP and greater share of spending on research and development generally display a stronger correlation between exporting status and innovation.     

Geography,knowledge spillovers and small firms’ exports: an empirical examination for The Netherlands

This study examines the impact of external and internal scale economies on the decision to start exporting and the level of exports of innovating firms. Based on new trade theory, increasing returns to scale—both internal and external scale economies—are considered an important source of comparative and competitive advantage. The empirical analysis of (small) innovating firms in The Netherlands leads to two main findings. First, firms that are located in technical Marshallian clusters seem less inclined to become exporters. Availability of technical knowledge alone does not help to reduce entry costs that come with the decision to export and/or marketing and sales costs in order to achieve a higher export performance. Second, firms that experience difficulties in appropriating innovation rents due to labour poaching also seem to be less inclined to become exporters. The explanation for this second finding is the importance of outgoing knowledge spillovers, which is particularly relevant for small, product innovating firms. This reduces their probability to export. However, if firms export, the knowledge leaking argument is not valid for the export performance of the firm.     

Domestic and export performances of French firms

The French trade balance deteriorated almost continuously from the late 1990s to the early 2010s. At the macroeconomic level, French export market share deteriorated while domestic sales kept pace with domestic demand. Does this assessment apply to individual firms? Using microlevel data for French industrial firms over the period 2002–12, we explore the link between domestic and export sales. We show that export and domestic sales have a tendency, albeit slight, to move in opposite directions. This may be due to factors such as deliberate strategies to target a specific market or the presence of production constraints. Addressing the resulting endogeneity issue, our analysis shows that a positive demand shock in the domestic market also leads to an increase in exports. In particular, a 10% increase in domestic demand leads to a 4% increase in exports. This complementarity between markets seems to be driven by small firms and could reflect the existence of liquidity constraints. Increased sales in one market could lessen these constraints by facilitating funding for company development in the export market.     

The impact of transport costs on new venture internationalisation

This paper investigates the importance of transport costs in new venture internationalisation, i.e. of firms that start exporting before they are 3 years of age. It does so by merging two large international datasets, on the firm level (covering 49,584 firms) as well as on the country level (covering 154 countries). It is found that transport costs matter significantly for new venture internationalisation, for older firms’ decision to export, as well as the extent of the latter’s subsequent exports. Export costs, the quality of transport infrastructure and domestic logistics costs affect new venture internationalisation even when controlling for a range of standard determinants. New international ventures behave differently from older firms in two important ways: (1) Transport costs affect the probability that they will export but not the extent of their subsequent exports and (2) their probability of exporting is affected negatively by their networking, domestic success and ISO status, whilst in the case of older firms, these factors have a positive impact. Various recommendations for policy and further research are made.     

Go big or stay home? Korean machinery firms,trade fair dynamics and export performance

With heightened global competition, many manufacturers export as a process by which to increase sales and expand into new markets. South Korean manufacturers export in order to expand outside of a small domestic market, but confront the constraints of many exporters (especially smaller firms), including access to market intelligence and geographically distant prospective customers. This article examines efforts by machine tool manufacturers to minimize the friction of distance involved with exporting through the use of international trade fairs. Analytical emphases are placed on the influence of individual export destinations and on the role of firm size vis-à-vis firm export intensities and overall export strategies and motivations.     

Innovation and survival of exporters: A contingency perspective

We challenge the traditional view that innovations always help exporters prosper in competitive international market, by developing and testing the premise that the relationship between innovation and export performance is contingent on some important firm-specific idiosyncrasies. With a large dataset of Chinese firms, the empirical results demonstrate that innovation could be detrimental to exporter survival. Such negative effect is more pronounced for firms that have weak profitability and high outstanding receivables, and also for those without foreign ownership. Nonetheless, we also observe a positive relationship between innovation and survival in highly profitable exporters. By identifying the negative rather than conventionally assumed positive effect of innovation, and the conditions under which innovation facilitates or impedes exporter survival, this paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between innovation and export in the context of emerging markets. Our findings have important implications for how managers develop innovation strategy to compete in the export market.     

Process innovations and firm productivity growth

This article analyses the effect of process innovations on firm total factor productivity growth, explicitly considering the impact of firm size on the nature of this relationship. In particular, we analyse whether firm size affects the life span of the impact of process innovations on productivity growth. The data are drawn from a Spanish survey of manufacturing firms over the period 1991–1998. We use a fully non-parametric methodology based on the concept of stochastic dominance. Our results show that the implementation of process innovations produces an extra productivity growth both for large and small firms. However, this productivity growth is more persistent for large than for small firms.     

A longitudinal study of the relationship between export activity and innovation in the Spanish firm: The moderating role of productivity

Does innovation lead the firm to export more products, or does a firm's export propensity induce it to innovate? How does a firm's productivity level change this relationship? After confirming that exporters develop more innovations than non-exporters, this study attempts to answer these questions by studying two effects. First, we analyse the impact of innovation on a firm's export activities while addressing potential endogeneity concerns. Second, we examine the impact of export activity on a firm's innovation performance. We must address both questions when considering firm productivity. To this end, we conduct a longitudinal analysis of 14,142 observations of an annual average of 1767 Spanish firms within the manufacturing sector during the period from 2001 to 2008. The results suggest that the self-selection hypothesis adequately explains the observed phenomena. That is, innovation induces firms to increase their export activities. This finding is robust to endogeneity. Nevertheless, firms do not experience any learning-by-exporting effects on the obtaining of product or process innovations. Productivity does not modify any of these relationships.     

Economic performance of Brazilian manufacturing firms: a counterfactual analysis of innovation impacts

This article assesses if innovators outperform non-innovators in Brazilian manufacturing during 1996–2002. To do so, we begin with a simple theoretical model and test the impacts of technological innovation (treatment) on innovating firms (treated) by employing propensity score matching techniques. Correcting for the survivorship bias in the period, it was verified that, on an average, the accomplishment of technological innovations produces positive and significant impacts on the employment, the net revenue, the labor productivity, the capital productivity, and market share of the firms. However, this result was not observed for the mark-up. Especially, the net revenue reflects more robustly the impacts of the innovations. Quantitatively speaking, innovating firms experienced a 10.8–12.5 percentage points (p.p. henceforth) higher growth on employment, a 18.1–21.7 p.p. higher growth on the net revenue, a 10.8–11.9 p.p. higher growth on labor productivity, a 11.8–12.0 p.p. higher growth on capital productivity, and a 19.9–24.3 p.p. higher growth on their market share, relative to the average of the non-innovating firms in the control group. It was also observed that the conjunction of product and process innovations, relative to other forms of innovation, presents the stronger impacts on the performance of Brazilian firms.     

Firm-level volatility and exports

This paper shows that the share of exports in the total sales of a firm has a positive and substantial impact on the volatility of its sales. Decomposing the volatility of sales of exporters between their domestic and export markets, I show using an identification strategy based on a firm-specific geographical instrument that firms with a larger export share have more volatile domestic sales and less volatile exports. These empirical patterns can be explained using a model in which firms face market-specific shocks and short-run convex costs of production. In such a framework, firms react to a shock in one market by adjusting their sales in the other market. I point to strong evidence that output variations on the domestic and export market are negatively correlated at the firm level. This result casts doubts on the standard hypothesis that firms face constant marginal costs and maximize profits on their different markets independently of each other. Furthermore, it points to the caveat that sales volatility on a particular market only gives limited information about the size of shocks on that market.     

Innovation and export performance of emerging market enterprises: The roles of state and foreign ownership in China

This article examines the role of ownership for the relationship between innovation and exports. Analyzing a large firm-level data set on Chinese manufacturing firms during 2000–2007, we find that state ownership has a positive moderating effect on the innovation–export relationship. We ascribe this effect to state-owned firms’ privileged access to complementary resources and networks that strengthen their ability to use innovation to generate exports. In contrast to many earlier studies, we also find that foreign ownership has a negative moderating effect. One likely reason is that indicators of local innovation do not reflect the flows of knowledge between foreign-owned firms and their parent companies. This finding highlights the fact that innovation and production may be geographically separated within multinational enterprises. A policy implication of the analysis is that public support to innovation is likely to have stronger effects on exports when it targets firms that carry out most of their activities in domestic market.