Technology Spillovers and Innovation : The Importance of Domestic and Foreign Sources
Year: 2007
Type: preprint
Abstract: This paper asks whether there is evidence of higher innovation output from firms where there are more foreign activity in terms of foreign direct investments (FDI), trade, collaboration on innovation, or if geographic proximity between innovators is more important. The conclusions are that 1) there is robust evidence that FDI, observed as foreign-owned firms is neutral with respect to innovation output; 2) import correlates highly significantly with innovation product sales among multinational firms (MNEs) as well as non-MNEs; 3) the evidence for spillover from R&D collaboration with domestic innovation partners is weak when bilateral arrangements are considered. Only non-MNEs collaborating with local, regional or national suppliers and customers are benefiting from the collaboration; 4) when multilateral R&D arrangements are taken into account it is shown that R&D-collaborators have higher innovation inputs than non-collaborators. In particular, when the network includes a foreign subunit and a scientific partner, the likelihood of successful technology transfer increases considerably.
Author: Hans Lööf
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1518544650