Productivity spillovers from foreign affiliates and domestic firm internationalization: firm-level evidence for Belgium.

We examine to what extent local firms can reap productivity gains from knowledge spillovers due to the presence of manufacturing affiliates of multinational firms, taking into account that domestic firms' internationalization through import and export activities may also lead to productivity growth. We examine spillovers occurring within sectors as well as those potentially occurring across industries due to client or supply relations of local firms with foreign-owned affiliates in downstream and upstream sectors, respectively. Fixed affects panel analysis on a sample of 4594 local Belgian firms during 2000-2007 reveal significant positive effects of horizontal and backward spillovers on the productivity levels of local firms. Evidence of productivity benefits due to forward linkages from foreign-owned affiliates supplying local firms is only be found for local firms with no export or import activities. Both importing and exporting activities are associated with higher productivity. In general, backward spillovers are weaker for exporting firms, and forward spillovers do not benefit importing firms, suggesting that local spillovers from client/supply relations with foreign multinationals and internationalization can be seen as alternative ways in which internationalization of an economy can enhance productivity performance.

Foreign and Domestic R&D Investment

A considerable share of R&D investment is due to multinational firms that simultaneously operate R&D bases at home and abroad. The existing empirical literature on R&D investment has however ignored the possibility that domestic and foreign R&D investments are simultaneously decided. In this paper, we draw on the technological opportunity, appropriability, and demand framework suggested by Cohen and Klepper (1996) to develop a simple model of foreign and domestic R&D investment. We test the model's predictions concerning the ratio of foreign to domestic R&D investment on a sample of 146 Japanese multinational firms' R&D investments in Japan and the United States in 1996. The empirical results confirm that the foreign R&D ratio depends on relative technological opportunities, relative demand conditions, and a proxy for firm-level R&D productivity. When differentiating between research and development activities, foreign research is driven by technological opportunity and foreign development by the demand factor, as expected.R&D, multinational firms, Foreign Direct Investment

Persistence of, and interrelation between, horizontal and vertical technology alliances.

The authors explore to what extent there is persistence in, and interrelation between, alliance strategies with different partner types (customers, suppliers, competitors). In a panel data set of innovation-active firms in the Netherlands from 1996 to 2004, the authors find persistence in alliance strategies with all three types of partners, but customer alliance strategies are more persistent than supplier alliance strategies and competitor alliance strategies. A positive interrelation between customer and supplier alliance strategies and a high persistence of joint supplier and customer alliance strategies are consistent with the advantages of value chain integration in innovation efforts. Prior engagement in horizontal (competitor) alliances increases the propensity to engage in vertical alliance strategies, but this effect occurs only with a longer lag. Overall, the authors’ findings suggest that alliance strategies with different partner types are both heterogeneous in persistence and (temporally) interrelated. This suggests that intertemporal relationships between different types of alliances may be as important as their simultaneous relationship in alliance portfolios.

Does Excellence in Academic Research Attract Foreign R&D?.

We examine the role of host countries’ academic research strengths in global R&D location decisions by multinational firms. While we expect that a firm’s propensity to perform R&D in a host country increases with the strength of local academic research, firms are expected to be heterogeneously positioned to benefit from academic research strengths due to differences in the capacity to absorb and utilize scientific knowledge. We find support for these conjectures in an analysis of foreign R&D activities in 40 host countries and 30 technology fields by 176 leading European, US and Japanese firms during the periods 1995-1998 and 1999-2002. Controlling for a wide range of host country factors, the number of relevant ISI publications by scientists based in the host country has a substantial positive impact on the propensity to conduct foreign R&D. The effect of academic research is significantly larger for firms with a stronger science orientation in R&D - as indicated by citations to scientific literature in prior patents. For host countries with a strong relevant science base, this greater responsiveness of science oriented firms more than offsets a generally greater inclination to concentrate R&D at home. The findings appear robust across a variety of specifications.

Internal and external R&D: complements or substitutes? Evidence from a dynamic panel data model.

We examine the impact of internal and external R&D on labor productivity in a 6-year panel of 304 innovating firms. We apply a dynamic linear panel data model that allows for decreasing returns to scale in internal and external R&D with a non-linear approximation of changes in the knowledge stock. We find complementarity between internal and external R&D, with a positive impact of external R&D only evident in case of sufficient internal R&D. The findings confirm the role of internal R&D in enhancing absorptive capacity and hence the effective utilization of external knowledge. These results suggest that empirical studies examining complementarities between continuously measured practices should adopt more general non-linear specifications to allow for correct inferences.R&D; Panel data; Innovating firms; Knowledge; Empirical study; Specifications;

Strategic R&D location in European manufacturing industries.

We develop and empirically test a model of foreign R&D investments that takes into account strategic interaction in R&D location decisions by multinational firms in the context of R&D spillovers and foreign technology sourcing strategies. In a two-country, two-firm model with cross investments, the optimal share of R&D performed abroad depends on the efficiency of intra-firm international technology transfer, the degree of inter-firm R&D spillovers, the intensity of product market competition, and the importance of the general knowledge pool. The impact of these factors differs markedly between technology leading firms and technology laggards. We find support for most of the predictions of the model in an empirical analysis of patents based on innovations in foreign countries by 131 leading European manufacturing firms in 22 ISIC industries in 1996-1997. For technology leaders, the share of patents originating in other EU countries responds positively to host country product market competition and is strongly increasing in the level of intellectual property rights protection. Foreign R&D by technology laggards is discouraged by host country competition but increases with the efficiency of (reverse) technology transfer. Foreign R&D of both leaders and laggards increases with the size of the local knowledge pool and the size of production operations in the host country.Competition; Country; Decision; Decisions; Efficiency; Empirical analysis; Factors; Firms; Impact; Industries; Industry; Innovation; Innovations; Intellectual property; Intensity; Interfirm R&D; International; Investment; Investments; Knowledge; Manufacturing; Manufacturing firms; Market; Model; Multinational firms; Optimal; Patents; Prediction; Predictions; Product; R&D; Size; Sourcing; Spillovers; Strategy; Technology; Technology transfer;

Undertakings and antidumping FDI in Europe.

This paper studies the effects of EU antidumping policy when foreign firms have the possibility to 'jump' antidumping measures by engaging in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the EU. Using a multi-stage framework, we study the EU administration's choice between an antidumping duty and a price-undertaking, taking into account the effect of these measures on the location decision of the foreign firm and the subsequent price competition between local and foreign firms. Our findings suggest that the EU administration acting purely in the EU industry's interest prefers a price-undertaking to a duty, if the latter leads to 'duty jumping' FDI. FDI toughens price competition in the EU market and leaves local firms worse off. Antidumping jumping FDI will only occur if the EU administration has broader objectives than just protecting the profitability of EU industry, if fixed costs of FDI are not too high, and if the cost advantage of foreign firms are, at least partially, firm-specific and transferable abroad. If foreign firms are able to act strategically taking into account EU antidumping policy, the presence of antidumping law can also discourage FDI that would have taken place under free trade conditions.Studies; Effects; Investment; Competition; Industry; Profitability;

Internal basic research, external basic research and the technological performance of pharmaceutical firms.

We evaluate the impact of basic research on pharmaceutical firms’ technological performance, distinguishing between internal basic research and the exploitation of external basic research findings. We find that firms increase their performance by engaging more in internal basic research, in particular if basic research is conducted in collaboration with university scientists. The exploitation of external basic research improves performance, while the magnitude increases with firms’ involvement in internal basic research. Hence, internal basic research and the exploitation of external basic research are complements, suggesting that internal basic research provides firms with the skills to exploit external basic research more effectively.basic research; industrial innovation; pharmaceutical industry;

Testing for complementarity and substitutability in the case of multiple practices.

Recent empirical studies of firm-level performance have been concerned with establishing potential complementarity between more than two organizational practices. These papers have drawn conclusions on the basis of potentially biased estimates of pair-wise interaction effects between such practices. In this paper we develop a consistent testing framework based on multiple inequality constraints that derives from the definition of (strict) supermodularity as suggested by Athey and Stern (1998). Monte Carlo results show that the multiple restrictions test is superior for performance models with high explanatory power. If practices explain only a minor part of organizational performance no test is able to identify complementarity or substitutability in a satisfactory manner.Complementarity; Constraint; Effects; Empirical study; Firm performance; Framework; Interaction effects; Model; Models; Performance; Power; Studies; Supermodularity;

Persistence of and interrelation between horizontal and vertical technology alliances

We examine how and to what extent the propensity to be engaged in alliances with different partner types (suppliers, customers and competitors) depends on prior alliance engagement with partner firms of the same type (persistence) and prior engagement in alliances with the other partner types (interrelation). We derive hypotheses from a combined competence and governance view of collaboration, and test these on an extensive panel dataset of innovation-active Dutch firms during 1996-2004. We find persistence in alliance engagement of all three types of partners, but customer alliances are more persistent than supplier alliances. Most persistent are joint supplier and customer alliances, which we attribute to the advantages of value chain integration in innovation processes. Positive interrelation also exists in vertical alliances, as immediate past customer alliances increase the propensity to engage in supplier alliances and vice versa. On the other hand, while prior engagement in horizontal (competitor) alliances increases the propensity to engage in vertical alliances, this effect only occurs with a longer lag. Overall, our findings are highly supportive of the idea that alliance engagement with different partner types is heterogeneous but interrelated. Our analysis suggests that the inter-temporal relationship between different types of alliances may be as important as their simultaneous relationship in alliance portfolios.R&D collaboration, technological partnerships, innovation, path dependency