Leaders, laggards and technology seeking strategies

Roger Smeets and Maarten Bosker

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2011, vol. 80, issue 3, 481-497

Abstract: We analyze the conditions determining optimal technology seeking strategies for leader and laggard firms. We extend existing theories by differentiating leaders and laggards in terms of absorptive capacity and intra-firm technology transfer skills, next to productivity levels. In addition, both Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as well as exports function as two alternative technology seeking strategies. Our theoretical results demonstrate that for a wide range of parameter settings, leaders optimally seek technology through FDI, whereas laggards do so through exports. Confronting these findings with some original exploratory industry-level analysis complemented by insights derived from case studies, we find broad overall support for our theoretical predictions.

Keywords: FDI; Exports; Technology seeking; Knowledge spillovers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F23 L21 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:80:y:2011:i:3:p:481-497

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2011.05.003

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