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http://dx.doi.org/10.5762/KAIS.2020.21.2.565

The Determinants of Korean Manufacturing Firms' Innovative Activity: Do Firm Size and Appropriabilities Matter?  

Song, Ji-Hyun (Department of Economics, University of Seoul)
Publication Information
Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society / v.21, no.2, 2020 , pp. 565-577 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study empirically examined how a firm size affects the determinants of innovative activities using the data of the Korean Innovation Survey (KIS) 2016. With data from 2,003 firms in the manufacturing sector, we performed logistic regression analysis and zero-inflated negative binomial regression analysis. R&D expenditure and patent applications were used as proxies for innovative activity. The independent variables included the firm's characteristics variables such as the firm's age, tech-level industry, RDemp (R&D employee ratio), venture, export, and industrial characteristics variables such as networking, appropriability, and spillovers. The empirical findings are that there are some differences in firms' innovative activity determinants among the firms' size groups. Next, strategic appropriability has negative impacts on small firms' R&D expenditure and medium-firms' patents. Networking is an important determinant of innovative activity for all firms, except for large firms. Furthermore, in deciding R&D activities, small and medium-sized firms were significantly influenced by industrial characteristics as compared to that of large firms. Our findings suggest some R&D promotion policies. Policies fostering firms' technological interaction would allow firms to take advantage of technological spillovers and thus raise the probability of investing in R&D.
Keywords
Manufacturing; Appropriability; Patent; R&D; Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial;
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