An Empirical Study at Firm Level on New Technological Trade Theory

신기술무역이론의 미시적 실증연구

This paper focuses on the relationship between innovation and export performance of technology-based firms in Korea. This study analyses the relationship between innovative activity and firm's performances using a sample of 760 technology-based firms in Korea. As for the firm's performance indicators, export is employed. The empirical results support that innovation has a positive effect on firm's export performance. However, for small and medium firms, the relationship between innovative activity and export performance is an U-shape quadratic form, which shows that small firms takes a minimum innovative expenditure in order to access the abroad market. Also, with product differentiation, innovative firms tends to devot more to domestic market than to abroad market. Therefore, it can be concluded that innovative activity builds market power and accelerates export performance. And product differentiation through advertising expenditure make innovative firms less exporting.