IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/millen/v10y2019i3p249-271.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Innovation and Exports of Korean Firms: How Do They Differ by Size and Industry?

Author

Listed:
  • Wonkyu Shin
  • Sehwan Oh
  • Sungho Rho

Abstract

This article examines some of the distinctive characteristics of South Korean firms in relation to their research and development (R&D) and export activities affecting the efforts to retain intellectual property rights (IPR). In particular, this study shows how firms of different sizes (small and medium enterprises: SMEs vs. large-scale enterprises: LEs) tend to hold the ownership of IPR differently. To test the heterogeneous effects of the firms’ innovative capacity, this study utilizes the firm level data of 6,138 Korean firms during 2006–2014. In the years 2006–2014, South Korea concluded free trade agreements (FTAs) with numerous economies and accelerated its market competition and integration into the global economy. Our empirical results found that R&D activities of both SMEs and LEs were active during the period; however, SMEs in particular took a great stride in their patenting and innovation activities. Findings of our article also show that the more companies engaged in export activities, the more actively patents grew. Furthermore, the companies in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry are more aggressive in patenting activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Wonkyu Shin & Sehwan Oh & Sungho Rho, 2019. "Innovation and Exports of Korean Firms: How Do They Differ by Size and Industry?," Millennial Asia, , vol. 10(3), pages 249-271, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:millen:v:10:y:2019:i:3:p:249-271
    DOI: 10.1177/0976399619879875
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0976399619879875
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0976399619879875?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shin, Wonkyu & Ahn, Dukgeun, 2019. "Trade Gains from Legal Rulings in the WTO Dispute Settlement System," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 1-31, January.
    2. Lechevalier, Sébastien & Debanes, Pauline & Shin, Wonkyu, 2019. "Financialization and industrial policies in Japan and Korea: Evolving institutional complementarities and loss of state capabilities," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 69-85.
    3. Jan De Loecker, 2013. "Detecting Learning by Exporting," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 1-21, August.
    4. Kyoo-Ho Park & Keun Lee, 2006. "Linking the technological regime to the technological catch-up: analyzing Korea and Taiwan using the US patent data," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 15(4), pages 715-753, August.
    5. Joachim Wagner, 2016. "Exports and Productivity: A Survey of the Evidence from Firm Level Data," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 1, pages 3-41, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    6. Robert M. Salomon & J. Myles Shaver, 2005. "Learning by Exporting: New Insights from Examining Firm Innovation," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 431-460, June.
    7. Lee Branstetter, 2017. "Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Development: Is Asia Different?," Millennial Asia, , vol. 8(1), pages 5-25, April.
    8. Sanika Sulochani Ramanayake & Keun Lee, 2015. "Does openness lead to sustained economic growth? Export growth versus other variables as determinants of economic growth," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 345-368, July.
    9. Lee,Keun, 2019. "The Art of Economic Catch-Up," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108460705, January.
    10. Evenson, Robert E. & Westphal, Larry E., 1995. "Technological change and technology strategy," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 37, pages 2209-2299, Elsevier.
    11. Keun Lee, 2009. "How Can Korea be a Role Model for Catch-up Development?: A 'Capability-based View'," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2009-34, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Lee,Keun, 2013. "Schumpeterian Analysis of Economic Catch-up," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107042681, January.
    13. Ryuhei Wakasugi & Lakhwinder Singh & Sukhpal Singh, 2017. "Innovations and Intellectual Property Rights in Asia: An Introduction," Millennial Asia, , vol. 8(1), pages 1-4, April.
    14. Swati Mehta, 2016. "Innovation and Employment: A Study of Indian Manufacturing Sector," Millennial Asia, , vol. 7(2), pages 184-206, October.
    15. Wonkyu Shin & Keun Lee & Walter G. Park, 2016. "When an Importer's Protection of IPR Interacts with an Exporter's Level of Technology: Comparing the Impacts on the Exports of the North and South," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(6), pages 772-802, June.
    16. David Greenaway & Richard Kneller, 2007. "Firm heterogeneity, exporting and foreign direct investment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(517), pages 134-161, February.
    17. Randall S. Jones & Jae Wan Lee, 2018. "Enhancing dynamism in SMEs and entrepreneurship in Korea," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1510, OECD Publishing.
    18. Singh, Lakhwinder & Gill, Anita, 2016. "Emergence of Innovative Manufacturing Firms across Asian Countries," MPRA Paper 71148, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Chang, Ha-Joon, 1993. "The Political Economy of Industrial Policy in Korea," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 17(2), pages 131-157, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leonard Fong Litt Lam & Siong Hook Law & W. N. W. Azman-Saini & Normaz Wana Ismail, 2023. "High Technology Trade and the Roles of Absorptive Capabilities in Malaysia," Millennial Asia, , vol. 14(3), pages 315-340, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gkypali, Areti & Love, James H. & Roper, Stephen, 2021. "Export status and SME productivity: Learning-to-export versus learning-by-exporting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 486-498.
    2. Upalat Korwatanasakul & Tran Thi Hue, 2022. "Global Value Chain Participation and Labour Productivity in Manufacturing Firms in Viet Nam: Firm-Level Panel Analysis," Working Papers DP-2022-34, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    3. Richard Harris & John Moffat, 2011. "R&D, Innovation and Exporting," SERC Discussion Papers 0073, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Cassey Lee, . "The Exporting and Productivity Nexus: Does Firm Size Matter?," Chapters, in: Chin Hee Hahn & Dionisius A. Narjoko (ed.), Globalization and Performance of Small and Large Firms, chapter 8, pages VIII-1 - , Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    5. Jože P. Damijan & Črt Kostevc & Sašo Polanec, 2010. "From Innovation to Exporting or Vice Versa?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 374-398, March.
    6. Ciarli, Tommaso & Coad, Alex & Moneta, Alessio, 2023. "Does exporting cause productivity growth? Evidence from Chilean firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 228-239.
    7. Trinh, Long Q., 2016. "Dynamics of Innovation and Internationalization among Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Viet Nam," ADBI Working Papers 580, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    8. Cristiano Antonelli & Christophe Feder, 2021. "The Schumpeterian creative response: export and innovation: evidence for OECD countries 1995–2015," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(3), pages 803-821, October.
    9. Christopher F. Baum & Mustafa Caglayan & Oleksandr Talavera, 2016. "R&D Expenditures and Geographical Sales Diversification," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 84(2), pages 197-221, March.
    10. Flora Bellone & Patrick Musso & Lionel Nesta & Michel Quere, 2008. "The U-Shaped Productivity Dynamics of French Exporters," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 144(4), pages 636-659, December.
    11. Sanika Sulochani Ramanayake & Chandana Shrinath Wijetunga, 2017. "Rethinking the development of post-war Sri Lanka based on the Singapore model," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2017-009, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    12. Ramos Ruiz, José & Polo Otero, José & Arrieta Barcasnegras, Aquiles & Vega Cárcamo, Jean, 2018. "Impacto de la innovación en marketing sobre la conducta exportadora de las empresas del sector agroindustrial español || Impact of Marketing Innovation on Exporting Behavior for Spanish Agro-Industry ," Revista de Métodos Cuantitativos para la Economía y la Empresa = Journal of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, vol. 25(1), pages 54-71, Junio.
    13. Ge, Shuang & Liu, Xielin, 2022. "The role of knowledge creation, absorption and acquisition in determining national competitive advantage," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    14. Tommaso Ciarli & Alex Coad & Alessio Moneta, 2019. "Exporting and productivity as part of the growth process: Causal evidence from a data-driven structural VAR," LEM Papers Series 2019/39, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    15. Richter, Philipp M. & Schiersch, Alexander, 2017. "CO2 emission intensity and exporting: Evidence from firm-level data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 373-391.
    16. Ingo Geishecker & Philipp J. H. Schröder & Allan Sørensen, 2017. "Explaining the size differences of exporter premia: theory and evidence," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 153(2), pages 327-351, May.
    17. Konstantins Benkovskis & Jaan Masso & Olegs Tkacevs & Priit Vahter & Naomitsu Yashiro, 2020. "Export and productivity in global value chains: comparative evidence from Latvia and Estonia," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(3), pages 557-577, August.
    18. Alvaro Garcia-Marin & Nico Voigtländer, 2019. "Exporting and Plant-Level Efficiency Gains: It's in the Measure," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(4), pages 1777-1825.
    19. Keun Lee and John Mathews, 2013. "Science, technology and innovation for sustainable development," CDP Background Papers 016, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    20. Fakhimi, MohammadAmin & Miremadi, Iman, 2022. "The impact of technological and social capabilities on innovation performance: a technological catch-up perspective," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:millen:v:10:y:2019:i:3:p:249-271. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.