Intra-firm Technology Transfer and R&D in Foreign Affiliates: Substitutes or Complements? Evidence from Japanese Multinational Firms

Rene Belderbos, Banri Ito () and Ryuhei Wakasugi ()
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Banri Ito: Research Institute of Economy Trade and Industry (RIETI)
Ryuhei Wakasugi: Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research

No 45, UNU-MERIT Working Paper Series from United Nations University, Maastricht Economic and social Research and training centre on Innovation and Technology

Abstract: R&D in foreign affiliates and technology transferred from their parent firms are important potential drivers of productivity in host countries. In this paper we examine the simultaneous impact of local R&D and intra-firm international technology transfer on productivity growth in foreign affiliates. We estimate a dynamic productivity model on a large sample of Japanese manufacturing affiliates worldwide in 1996-1997 and 1999-2000. We find that both affiliate R&D and intra-firm technology transfer contribute to productivity growth, while technology transfer exhibits decreasing marginal returns. The two sources of technology are complements: use of one source of technology increases the marginal impact of the other.

Keywords: R&D; technology transfer; multinational firms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 O32 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-eff, nep-ino, nep-knm and nep-mic
Date: 2008
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Journal Article: Intra-firm technology transfer and R&D in foreign affiliates: Substitutes or complements? Evidence from Japanese multinational firms (2008)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dgr:unumer:2008045

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