Do leading or lagging firms learn more from exporting?

Abstract

An interesting theoretical debate arises when considering firm heterogeneity in learning from exporting. One perspective intimates that technologically lagging firms stand to benefit more from exporting because exposure to technological knowledge in foreign markets allows these firms to close the gap with their more technologically endowed counterparts. A contrasting perspective posits that technologically superior firms benefit more from exporting since these firms are better equipped to translate knowledge acquired in foreign markets into innovation. Using a sample of 1,744 Spanish manufacturing firms from 1990–1997, this study empirically investigates how exporting differentially influences the patent output of technologically leading versus technologically lagging firms. We find that exporting is associated with the ex post increase in innovative productivity for both technologically leading and lagging firms. However, subsequent to exporting, technologically leading firms apply for more patents than technologically lagging firms. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Internationalization and innovation performance of emerging market enterprises: The role of host-country institutional development

“…Patents measure something "above and beyond R&D inputs, a creation of an underlying knowledge stock" (Hall, Griliches & Hausman, 1986) and provide an observable indicator of a firm's technological capabilities (Adegbesan & Higgins, 2010). Patent data can accurately capture the intellectual property of a firm and therefore have been widely used to measure innovation performance (e.g., Hall, Jaffe & Trajtenberg, 2001;Adegbesan & Higgins, 2010;Salomon & Jin, 2010).…”

Strategic goal accomplishment in export ventures: the role of capabilities, knowledge, and environment

“…with international markets as a key knowledge resource (e.g., Salomon & Jin 2010). This may allow managers to better deal with uncertainty in the export marketplace by providing key export market-based knowledge that enables them to better identify which available strategy options best match the specific requirements of the target export market (e.g., Fang et al…”

The Effects of Internationalization on Innovation: Firm-Level Evidence for Transition Economies

“…For individual EU countries, several studies rely on data from Spanish manufacturers to analyse the relationship between internationalization and innovation. Salomon and Jin (2010) find that exporting raises productivity regardless of the level of innovative capacity. Kafouros et al (2008) show that internationalization increases the firm's capacity to raise productivity through innovation, while Monreal-Pérez et al…”