The effect of strategic alliances on firm productivity in South Korea

Using a rich firm-level data set from South Korea, this article analyses the impact of strategic alliances on firm performance, focusing on how firm productivity is affected by alliance types such as joint venture, joint technical development, technical alliance, joint marketing and coproduction as well as alliance structures such as intra- and inter-industry alliances. Total factor productivity (TFP) is estimated through the semi-parametric method suggested by Levinsohn and Petrin (2003). In addition, a two-stage least-squares (2SLS) method is applied to reduce the potential endogenous problem between productivity and strategic alliance choices. The empirical results found in this article indicate that the engagement in joint ventures positively affects firm productivity and that the formation of international intra-industry alliances has a positive impact on firm productivity.