Working Paper #2008-061
FDI and Innovation as Drivers of Export Behaviour: Firm-level Evidence from East Asia
This paper examines the links between ownership, innovation and
exporting in electronics firms in three late industrializing East Asian
countries (China, Thailand and the Philippines) drawing on recent
developments in applied international trade and innovation and learning.
Technology-based approaches to trade offer a plausible explanation for
firm-level exporting behavior. The econometric results (using probit)
confirm the importance of foreign ownership and innovation in increasing
the probability of exporting in electronics. Higher levels of skills,
managers’ education and capital also matter in China as well as
accumulated experience in Thailand. Furthermore, a technology index
composed of technical functions performed by firms emerges as a more
robust indicator of innovation than the R&D to sales ratio. Accordingly,
technological effort in electronics in these countries mostly focuses on
assimilating and using imported technologies rather than formal R&D by
specialized engineers.
- Keywords
-
- foreign direct investment
- innovation
- technological capabilities
- R&D
- firm-level exports
- electronics
- East Asia
- China
- Thailand and the Philippines UNU-MERIT Working Papers ISSN 1871-9872
- JEL codes
-
- F23
- O31
- O32
- L63
- O57
Cite this as
APA 7th ed.Wignaraja, G. (2008). FDI and Innovation as Drivers of Export Behaviour: Firm-level Evidence from East Asia (UNU-MERIT Working Paper No. 2008-061). UNU-MERIT. https://unu-merit.nl/publications/working-papers/abstract/?id=3540