Innovation Strategy and Total Factor Productivity Growth : Micro Evidence from Taiwanese Manufacturing Firms

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between firms’ innovation practices and performance in Taiwan. Using a panel of 4000 firms, we examine the effects of importing technology (versus doing R&D) on Total Factor Porductivity (TFP) growth. The relationship between these two innovation strategies is also explored. We find that R&D strongly contributes to the growth of TFP, whereas the importation of technology is only weakly significant, which makes it difficult to qualify the type of relationship (complementarity or substitutability) that exists between the two innovation strategies.Importation of technology;Newly industrializzed countries;Productivity growth;Firm-level panel data; Manufacturing industries