Doing R&D and/or Importing Technologies: The Critical Importance of Firm Size in Taiwan’s Manufacturing Industries

Stéphane Robin (1) , Chialin Chang (2)

1 BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée
2 NCHU - National Chung Hsing University

We analyze the relationship between firm size and innovation inputs in Taiwan, Two inputs are considered: R&D and technology imports. Building on an existing theoretical framework, we test this relationship by estimating bivariate Tobit models in twenty 2-digit industries, using a panel of 27,754 firms observed from 1992 to 1995. We find that, in all industries, R&D intensity and/or technology imports intensity depend strongly on firm size, following an "inverted-U" pattern. Moreover, we find that most industries are only "mildly Schumpeterian". Finally, our results provide some empirical evidence for complementarity between R&D and technology imports in the innovation process.

Keywords: Firm size; Inter-industry comparisons; R&D; Technology imports

Domains: Economics and Finance; Methods and statistics; Quantitative Finance [q-fin]

Stéphane Robin, Chialin Chang. Doing R&D and/or Importing Technologies: The Critical Importance of Firm Size in Taiwan’s Manufacturing Industries. Review of Industrial Organization, 2006, 29 (3), pp.253-278. ⟨10.1007/s11151-006-9114-8⟩. ⟨hal-03691818⟩