Effect of International Technology Transfer on the Technical Efficiency of High‐Tech Manufacturing in China: A RAGA‐PP‐SFA Analysis

Abstract

The sustainable development of China’s high-tech manufacturing (HTM) sector is restricted by dependence on technology introduction and foreign direct investment (FDI), low input-output efficiency, and environmental pollution. This study aimed to examine the roles of technology introduction and FDI in improving the technical efficiency of Chinese HTM from an environmental perspective. By integrating stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and projection pursuit (PP) based on the real-coded accelerated genetic algorithm (RAGA), this study constructed a RAGA-PP-SFA model that considers undesirable outputs. This model includes various outputs, including environmental pollution, in the production function to improve estimation accuracy. Moreover, to verify the robustness of the estimation results, the results were provided when environmental pollutants were taken as input factors. The results showed that technology introduction could significantly promote HTM’s technical efficiency, while FDI had no significant positive effect. By comparing the estimated results with those that did not consider environmental pollution, this study not only reveals different roles of technology introduction and FDI in improving HTM’s technical efficiency but also confirms that ignoring environmental pollution will overestimate their roles (especially the role of FDI) in such improvement.

Spatiotemporal characteristics and influencing factor analysis of universities’ technology transfer level in China: The perspective of innovation ecosystems

“…Without dividing UTT into stages, some scholars select different input–output indicators [ 23 , 24 ]. Some scholars use SFA for measurement, which can test hypotheses and build confidence intervals after estimation to differentiate inefficiency and noise [ 25 ]. However, it needs to set the corresponding function in advance.…”

A Study on the Measurement and Influencing Factors of Innovation Governance Performance of Hubei Province in China Based on Technology Heterogeneity

“…In terms of innovation input in industrial enterprises, we referred to the selection of indicators in most studies [1,[14][15][16][17]. In terms of human resources input, this study selected the full-time equivalent of R&D personnel (RL), which is an internationally recognized indicator, based on the value chain of industrial enterprise innovation behavior.…”

“…In fact, from a regional viewpoint, the existing literature analyzes the main factors affecting manufacturing innovation performance from the perspectives of governments, markets, locations, and policies [13][14][15][16][17]. However, as the research subjects of this study are two-digit manufacturing industries within the province, the macro environment to which they belong is not much diferent (Since current public records do not provide complete macro-environmental data based on the diferentiation of industries (e.g., the impact of industrial policies), this study does not consider control variables in subsequent model designs).…”

“…Te study of the relationship between government support and innovation performance is one of the hot topics of studies on innovation. Most of the existing literature s [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] believes that government support produces a "bumping-down efect." As the cost of using government funds is low and the purpose and assessment of innovation may be ambiguous, there may be idle resources or excessive consumption of resources, rendering government support unconstructive for the improvement of innovation performance.…”

The Economics of Technology Transfer in The Environmental Safety of Enterprises for the Energy Transition

“…For example, in the USA and China, joint research centers were established where scientists shared experience and knowledge about solar cells and wind generators, which allowed to accelerate the development and commercialization of these technologies (Urban, 2018;Zhou et al, 2021). This has led to a significant reduction in the cost of production and an increase in the efficiency of solar and wind installations, making them more affordable for commercial and household use (Franza et al, 2012).…”