Technological Imports and Technological Effort: An Analysis of their Determinants in Brazilian Firms

Abstract

Logit analysis is employed to measure the effect of selected variables on the probability that a firm (1) purchases imported technology, (2) engages in research and development and (3) controls the quality of its production. Analysis of 4342 industrial establishments show these technological activities to share common determinants: all increase significantly with foreign ownership, exports and firm size. Other variables, including state ownership, profits and effective protection, affect only some activities. Imports of technology have a positive effect on technological effort and quality control. * This paper is a shortened version of a longer study that is available on request from the authors, who would like to thank Decio Fialho for research assistance and Sonia Dahab, Fernando Fajnzylber, Virene Matesco, Jorge M'attar, Jose Rossi and an anonymous referee for helpful comments. The opinions expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Brazil or the United Nations. 'See Caves et al. [1980, pp. 168-175] and Dahlman et al. [1987].

Innovation strategies and employment in Latin American firms

“…Earlier studies report a positive albeit weak relationship between some measure of imported technology and internal R&D (Deolalikar and Evenson, 1989;Lee, 1996;Katrack, 1985;. Using R&D equations, evidence of a complementary relationship is reported by Braga and Willmore (1991) for Brazilian firms, Lee (1996) for Korean firms, and Alvarez (2001) for Chilean firms. In contrast, when evaluating innovation strategies directly in productivity equations, Basant and Fikkert (1996) for Indian manufacturing firms and Zuniga, Guzman, and Brown (2007) for Mexican pharmaceutical firms, found a substitution effect between internal R&D and technology purchasing (multiplicative term of intensities).…”

Complementarity between In-house R&D and Technology Purchasing: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms

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Analysis of Incentive Effects of Government R & D Investment on Technology Transaction

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