Knowledge spillovers,absorptive capacity and total factor productivity in China’s manufacturing firms

Applying the stochastic frontier framework, this study explores the diffusion and absorption of technological knowledge in China’s manufacturing firms, based on a panel of more than 10,000 local and foreign-invested firms over the period 1998–2001. Our empirical approach allows us to distinguish between technological progress (TP) and technical efficiency (TE) in analysing whether R&D, exports and the presence of foreign direct investment simultaneously enhance TP through knowledge spillovers in a single framework and whether different types of domestic absorptive capacity moderate external knowledge spillovers in relation to TE. The results show that there are positive inter-industry productivity spillovers from R&D and foreign presence, whereas evidence of intra-industry productivity spillovers from FDI to Chinese firms is less robust. We find evidence that absorptive capacity is one of the key determinants to quantitatively explain intra-industry differences in productivity of local Chinese firms. The findings have important policy implications.     

Product sophistication and spillovers from foreign direct investment

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries is often associated with higher economic growth due to knowledge and technology spillovers to local firms. One way that FDI speeds up growth is by facilitating the manufacturing of more sophisticated products by local firms. So far, there is a lack of firm‐level evidence how the presence of multinational firms affects the product sophistication of firms in a developing country. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap. We compile an extensive firm–product‐level data set of Indian manufacturing firms, which we complement with information on product sophistication and spillovers from FDI. We then explore different channels through which spillovers from multinationals to local Indian firms foster the manufacturing of sophisticated products. We find evidence that spillovers through supplier linkages strongly increase the manufacturing of sophisticated products in India.     

The effect of science and technology parks on a firm’s performance: a dynamic approach over time

We argue that the benefits provided by locations inside science and technology parks evolve over time. Firms inside parks can improve performance due to certain advantages related to knowledge spillovers and shared resources that can be particularly useful in earlier stages of the industry life cycle. In these industries, local knowledge sharing is particularly useful because no standards are clearly established, as we have confirmed in a sample of 12,800 firms from the PITEC database, located either on- or off-park. We also find that young firms can benefit more from the park than more established businesses in terms of both business growth and innovative capacity. Although older firms have greater experience and investments that would increase their capacity to absorb external knowledge, their associated rigidities prevent them from incorporating changes into their structures.     

产业集群中知识溢出与区域竞争力提升研究

在知识经济时代,产业集群内知识溢出成为区域经济增长的主要内生变量,发挥着重要的作用,区域的竞争力也日益表现为对知识占有和利用之间的较量,研发创新、知识吸收与创新成为经济发展的内在动力源泉。本文分析了集群内知识溢出主要通过集群内企业间人员流动、集群内企业间观察模仿、集群内企业非正式交流及集群内企业衍生等途径来实现。探讨了集群内知识溢出和技术创新与区域竞争力的相互作用关系。提出了集群内知识溢出有利于集群企业的技术创新能力提升集群的知识积累水平,激活创新活力,增强区域的整体创新功能、有利于集群内企业降低创新成本与风险提升区域创新效率、有利于集群企业的人力资源的流动提升区域竞争力,从而形成集群区域独特的竞争优势。     

Are Faculty Critical? Their Role in University–Industry Licensing

Understanding the nature of the involvement of faculty in university licensing is important for understanding how technology is transferred through licensing as well as more controversial issues, such as the need for university licensing. Using data from a survey of firms that actively license in from universities, the authors explore the importance of faculty in the licensing and development of inventions, as well as how and why they are used and how the use of faculty relates to characteristics of firms. In particular, the authors find that the use of faculty through sponsored research in lieu of a license is closely related to the amount of basic research conducted by firms, whereas the use of faculty within the terms of a license is related to the prevalence of personal contacts between industry research and development researchers and university faculty. (JEL J44 , 031 )     

Same place,same knowledge – same people? The geography of non-patent citations in Dutch polymer patents

It has long been argued that geographic co-location supports knowledge spillovers. More recently, this argument has been challenged by showing that knowledge spillovers mainly flow through social networks, which may or may not be localized at various geographic scales. We further scrutinize the conjecture of geographically bounded knowledge spillovers by focusing on knowledge flows between academia and industry. Looking into citations to non-patent literature (NPL) in 2385 Dutch polymer patents, we find that citation lags are shorter on average if Dutch rather than foreign NPLs are cited. However, when excluding individual and organizational self-citations, geographically proximate NPLs no longer diffuse faster than foreign NPLs. This suggests that knowledge is not ‘in the air’ but transferred by mobile individuals and/or direct university–industry collaboration. Our findings moreover suggest an important role of international conferences in the diffusion of recent scientific knowledge.     

Spillovers from Foreign Firms through Worker Mobility: An Empirical Investigation*

While there is a large empirical literature on productivity spillovers from multinationals, this literature treats the channels through which these spillover effects work as a black box. The new approach in this paper is to investigate whether spillovers occur via worker mobility. We use data on whether or not the owner of a domestic firm has previous experience in a multinational, and relate this information to firm‐level productivity. Our results suggest that firms which are run by owners who worked for multinationals in the same industry immediately prior to opening up their own firm are more productive than other domestic firms.     

知识溢出理论的研究进展与述评

知识溢出的提出最早可以追溯到Marshall对外部性的讨论,自新经济地理理论以来,知识溢出更成为了近年来研究区域经济学增长、产业集群创新等领域不可缺少的变量。首先,通过回顾国内外学者对知识溢出的研究,发现知识的非竞争性和部分排他性是知识溢出现象发生的根本原因,产业内知识溢出和产业间知识溢出在产业发展的不同阶段具有程度各异的影响;其次,因地理距离和社会距离的存在,限制了局部区域知识的外溢,知识溢出具有空间局域性特征。在一定范围内,人力资本流动、商品贸易、FDI、合作研发、非正式交流等活动均成为了知识溢出的途径。尽管知识溢出是无意识的行为,但知识在流动中留下了可追溯的痕迹,并可通过知识生产函数法、专利引用文献法、C-H模型进行测量。最后,文中还展望了知识溢出在解释企业创新决策行为、产业集群创新、区域经济增长等方面的应用,并指出下一个研究方向。     

Inward FDI spillovers and innovation capabilities in Chinese business: exploring the moderating role of local industrial externalities

It is generally believed foreign direct investment (FDI) has spillover effects which can affect the innovation capabilities of local firms in host countries. Comparatively little, however, is known about the contingent local contextual factors that influence how these FDI spillovers can be captured. Integrating the literature on FDI knowledge spillovers with that on inter- and intra-industrial externalities, we explore how local industrial agglomeration moderates the effect of FDI knowledge spillovers on innovation in the emerging market context of China. Empirical estimates, based on panel data of 1610 listed indigenous Chinese firms recorded between 2000 and 2010, indicate that such spillovers are more easily captured in industrially diverse settings. By contrast, industrial specialisation negatively moderates this relationship. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

To innovate or to transfer?

FDI has been considered by many development economists as an important channel for transfer of technology to developing countries. It is suggested that modern, advanced technologies introduced by multinational firms can diffuse to domestic firms through spillovers. In this paper, we study innovation and technology transfer activities of domestic and foreign firms in Turkish manufacturing industries, and the impact of horizontal, vertical and labor spillovers on these activities. Our analysis shows that foreign firms are more innovative than their domestic counterparts, and transfer technology from abroad (mostly from their parent companies). Horizontal spillovers from foreign firms seem to be insignificant. The effects of foreign firms on technological activities of other firms in vertically related industries are ambiguous. High-tech suppliers tend to have a high rate of innovation when the share of foreign users is high, but the opposite is true for users: high-tech users supplied mainly by foreign firms tend to have a lower rate of innovation. Labor turnover is found to be the main channel of spillovers. Our findings reiterate the importance of tacitness of knowledge, and confirm that technology cannot easily be transferred through passive mechanisms.     

Wage,foreign-owned firms,and productivity spillovers via labour turnover: a non-linear analysis based on Chinese firm-level data

Using firm-level panel data from Chinese manufacturing firms over the period 2004–2007, this article investigates the impact of the wage gap between local and foreign-owned firms on foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers in terms of total factor productivity (TFP). We find a non-linear threshold effect that: a low-level wage gap threshold exists, below which FDI spillovers are significantly negative. This is because FDI spillovers via labour turnover are blocked due to the low wages of local firms, which jeopardizes the flow of skilled workers from foreign firms to local firms. In contrast, when the wage gap reaches a high-level threshold, local firms can get benefits from FDI spillovers. The reason is that high wages of local firms attract skilled employees to leave foreign firms, which yields a large magnitude of worker mobility from foreign firms to local firms. Our article provides evidence that labour turnover as the channel of FDI spillovers only works when the wage gap is beyond some threshold. Also, these thresholds vary across regions and firm ownerships.     

The two ways of FDI R&D spillovers: evidence from the French manufacturing industry

Using French firm-level panel data, this study investigates R&D spillovers from inward foreign direct investment (FDI) with respect to both horizontal and vertical linkages (backward and forward). Using a Crepon, Duguet and Mairesse (CDM) model, we estimate an R&D-augmented Cobb–Douglas production function to assess the impact of R&D spillovers on firm performance. The results emphasize that international spillovers (from foreign affiliates to local firms) have a greater effect on firm performance than reverse spillovers (from local firms to foreign affiliates) and are more likely to be backward than forward. Moreover, the effect of backward spillovers depends on a firm’s absorptive capacity and is amplified in the case of outsourcing relationships.     

知识溢出支撑集群企业创新跨越研究

培育集群企业技术创新能力是产业集群竞争优势的主要表现形式,而企业是集群中最活跃的行为主体,单个企业的技术创新能力在很大程度上反映了一个集群的技术创新能力.知识溢出、集群企业吸收能力是产业集群创新的关键要素.首先对集群企业技术创新能力、知识溢出、集群企业吸收能力的相关文献进行了综述,在此基础上归纳本文的研究要素,明确要素之间的逻辑关系;针对当前集群企业的现实,从吸收能力视角提出了知识溢出支撑集群企业技术创新能力跨越的理论分析框架,并从隐性知识、显性知识、吸收能力与集群企业技术创新能力跨越进行了分析,知识溢出对集群企业提升技术创新能力具有促进作用,而这种促进作用的大小受到集群企业本身吸收能力影响,即吸收能力增强了知识溢出对集群企业技术创新能力的促进作用.     

Multinational enterprises and innovation: firm level evidence on spillover via R&D collaboration

This paper estimates the knowledge spillovers to multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Sweden via domestic and foreign R&;D collaboration. Applying an augmented generalized method of moments-estimator that accounts for selectivity and simultaneity bias on data from 1,249 MNEs, our research has resulted in five distinct conclusions. First, we find that the knowledge spillovers via R&;D collaboration typically take place as a network phenomenon rather than a process between the local firm and a single innovation partner. Second, successful collaboration is conditional on the presence of foreign innovation partners in the network. Third, output is found to be an increasing function of R&;D-collaboration only among non-export oriented firms. Fourth, foreign MNEs, selling mainly to local and regional markets in Sweden, benefit more from R&;D collaboration than do other firms. Overall, the results show that demand-driven motives that require entrepreneurial knowledge to adapt products to local consumers and markets are more important for successful R&;D-collaboration than supply-driven motives.     

Spillovers and absorptive capacity in the decision to innovate of Spanish firms: the role of human capital

This paper investigates whether the existence of knowledge spillovers and the capacity of firms to assimilate them, which we relate with R&D intensity and some human resource management practices, are associated with the decision to innovate of Spanish firms. In order to do this, we employ data from the ‘Central de Balances’ database, which covers both manufacturing and services firms during the period 2003–2007, and use an estimator proposed by Wooldridge [2005. Simple solutions to the initial conditions problem in dynamic nonlinear panel data models with unobserved heterogeneity. Journal of Applied Econometrics 20, no. 1: 39–54] for dynamic random effects discrete choice models. The empirical exercise provides evidence on the positive link between spillovers and the innovative behaviour of companies, not just for the knowledge generated in the same industry, but also for that generated in the same region or by the public sector. Moreover, this link is stronger for those firms with a higher capacity to absorb those spillovers. This ability not only works through firms’ R&D capabilities, but also through factors such as the quality of the labour force, the share of temporary employment and the amount of resources spent in training. In addition to these factors, we find that innovation performance exhibits a high degree of inertia. Further, some other observed firm characteristics, such as size, sales growth, export behaviour, sector capital intensity or financial structure variables, are also found to be relevant determinants of the likelihood of innovation.     

Inter-firm trust in buyer–supplier relations: Are knowledge spillovers and geographical proximity relevant?

This paper empirically examines the impact of knowledge spillovers and geographical proximity on inter-firm trust in buyer–supplier relations. In particular, the effects of incoming knowledge spillovers from vertically related firms and firms’ appropriability problems are analyzed. The results suggest that there is a positive relationship between incoming knowledge spillovers from business partners and the level of inter-firm trust. Firms’ appropriability problems, however, lead to a decrease in inter-firm trust. Firms that cannot protect their technical knowledge have a greater perception of customer (supplier) opportunism. Furthermore, estimation results indicate that inter-firm trust between geographically close partners exceeds inter-firm trust between distant partners.     

Firms' decisions to innovate and innovation routines

This article investigates the forces that lead some firms to engage in more innovative activities than others using a survey of 360 large Australian firms. Many earlier studies on the determinants of innovation followed the Schumpeterian tradition, and focused on size and market structure as possible causes of innovativeness; however, with the event of new qualitative measures of industry knowledge and managerial styles, these factors have been found to be less important. The results of the present study show that external factors and generic routines common to all industries, such as the extent of learning, knowledge spillovers, appropriability and managerial approach are more important than industry specific forces. Locally-owned companies were also found to be more innovative, other things considered.     

The Downside of Knowledge Spillovers: An Explanation for the Dispersion of High-tech Industries

Both theoretical work on knowledge spillovers and regional policy initiatives often assume that there exists a general and unanimous advantage for firms to cluster. But opposed to the benefit is the disadvantage of sharing knowledge with other (rival) firms. This paper highlights the “downside” associated with knowledge spillovers and presents a four-stage game of location choice where spillovers result from labour poaching and where the strategic interaction between firms may make them avoid co-location with spillovers. The model provides an explanation for the dispersion of German high-tech industries found in a companion paper.     

Search within or beyond the industrial cluster? The effect of perceived competition and knowledge base tacitness on strategic location choices of external knowledge search

ABSTRACT

From a knowledge-based perspective, this paper highlights the need for a framework linking perceived competition of the industry and firms’ strategic location choices of external knowledge search and examines whether the perceived competition increases the propensity of cluster firms to search more widely from extra-cluster knowledge sources than intra-cluster knowledge sources. Furthermore, we emphasise that cluster firms with varying degrees of tacitness in their knowledge base might respond to such competition differently when conducting external knowledge search activities. Using a sample of 310 cluster firms in the Zhejiang Province of China, we find that the cluster firm would increase the propensity for more geographic boundary-spanning search relative to local search while under the pressure of competition. Moreover, the positive relationship between perceived competition and the propensity towards geographic knowledge search is weaker when the tacitness of the cluster firm’s knowledge base is higher. The findings contribute to the understanding of the relationship between competition and the choice of location strategies in external knowledge search.     

Foreign direct investment and technology spillovers: Evidence from panel data analysis of manufacturing firms in Zambia

The most pronounced reason for providing fiscal incentives to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) is that FDI is an effective conduit for technology transfer through technology spillovers to domestically owned firms in the host country. This study analyzes the nature and significance of productivity externalities of FDI to local firms, both in terms of intra-industry and inter-industry spillovers, using firm-level data from Zambia. The results show little evidence in support of intra-industry productivity spillovers from FDI on one hand, and significant inter-industry knowledge spillovers occurring through linkages. The net impact of FDI depends on the interaction between intra-industry and inter-industry productivity effects.