IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/millen/v14y2023i3p315-340.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

High Technology Trade and the Roles of Absorptive Capabilities in Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • Leonard Fong Litt Lam
  • Siong Hook Law
  • W. N. W. Azman-Saini
  • Normaz Wana Ismail

Abstract

This article analyses the importance of high-technology trade as a channel of economic growth to ease Malaysia out of the middle-income trap. This study also wonders upon the missing absorptive capabilities that validate the likelihoods of dismal gross domestic product (GDP) growth since the 1990s. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) estimator as robustness checks, this study identifies the determinants of high-technology trade and the appropriate absorptive capability in enhancing economic growth. The empirical results from quarterly data from 1990 to 2015 proved that foreign direct investment, financial development and infrastructure are vital to develop a successful high-technology trade. Another important finding is that it validates the presence of trade openness (as absorptive capability) in order to magnify the benefits of research and development (R&D). This explains why, despite spending on R&D, these spending do not project to economic growth.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:millen:v:14:y:2023:i:3:p:315-340
    DOI: 10.1177/09763996211065565
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09763996211065565
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09763996211065565?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. Sadequl Islam, 1996. "Economic freedom, per capita income and economic growth," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(9), pages 595-597.
    2. Aitken, Brian & Hanson, Gordon H. & Harrison, Ann E., 1997. "Spillovers, foreign investment, and export behavior," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1-2), pages 103-132, August.
    3. Tang, Yingkai & Zhang, Kevin H., 2016. "Absorptive capacity and benefits from FDI: Evidence from Chinese manufactured exports," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 423-429.
    4. Kim, Linsu, 1980. "Stages of development of industrial technology in a developing country: A model," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 254-277, July.
    5. Trischler, Jakob & Johnson, Mikael & Kristensson, Per, 2020. "A service ecosystem perspective on the diffusion of sustainability-oriented user innovations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 552-560.
    6. Borensztein, E. & De Gregorio, J. & Lee, J-W., 1998. "How does foreign direct investment affect economic growth?1," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 115-135, June.
    7. Azman-Saini, W.N.W. & Baharumshah, Ahmad Zubaidi & Law, Siong Hook, 2010. "Foreign direct investment, economic freedom and economic growth: International evidence," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1079-1089, September.
    8. Alfaro, Laura & Chanda, Areendam & Kalemli-Ozcan, Sebnem & Sayek, Selin, 2004. "FDI and economic growth: the role of local financial markets," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 89-112, October.
    9. Spyros Roukanas & Emmanouil Karakostas, 2019. "Is Japan a Pioneer in High Technology Exports?," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 22(73), pages 2-18, September.
    10. Harrison, Ann & Haddad, Mona, 1993. "Are there dynamic externalities from direct foreign investment? Evidence for Morocco," MPRA Paper 36279, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Romijn, Henny & Albaladejo, Manuel, 2002. "Determinants of innovation capability in small electronics and software firms in southeast England," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 1053-1067, September.
    12. Ahmed, Elsadig Musa, 2012. "Are the FDI inflow spillover effects on Malaysia's economic growth input driven?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 1498-1504.
    13. Sultana, Nasrin & Turkina, Ekaterina, 2020. "Foreign direct investment, technological advancement, and absorptive capacity: A network analysis," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(2).
    14. M. Hashem Pesaran & Yongcheol Shin & Richard J. Smith, 2001. "Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(3), pages 289-326.
    15. Athreye, Suma & Cantwell, John, 2007. "Creating competition?: Globalisation and the emergence of new technology producers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 209-226, March.
    16. Lei Zhu & Bang Nam Jeon, 2007. "International R&D Spillovers: Trade, FDI, and Information Technology as Spillover Channels," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 955-976, November.
    17. Guimón, José & Chaminade, Cristina & Maggi, Claudio & Salazar-Elena, Juan Carlos, 2018. "Policies to Attract R&D-related FDI in Small Emerging Countries: Aligning Incentives With Local Linkages and Absorptive Capacities in Chile," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 165-178.
    18. Schneider, Patricia Higino, 2005. "International trade, economic growth and intellectual property rights: A panel data study of developed and developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 529-547, December.
    19. Abramovitz, Moses, 1986. "Catching Up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(2), pages 385-406, June.
    20. Doucouliagos, Chris & Ulubasoglu, Mehmet Ali, 2006. "Economic freedom and economic growth: Does specification make a difference?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 60-81, March.
    21. Anabel Marin & Martin Bell, 2006. "Technology spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): the active role of MNC subsidiaries in Argentina in the 1990s," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 678-697.
    22. K.J. Joseph, 2013. "Has Trade been an Engine of Inclusive Growth? India’s Experience under Globalization," Millennial Asia, , vol. 4(2), pages 135-157, October.
    23. Stoian, Andreea & Iorgulescu, Filip, 2020. "Fiscal policy and stock market efficiency: An ARDL Bounds Testing approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 406-416.
    24. Niels Hermes & Robert Lensink, 2003. "Foreign direct investment, financial development and economic growth," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 142-163.
    25. Robert E. Carpenter & Bruce C. Petersen, 2002. "Capital Market Imperfections, High-Tech Investment, and New Equity Financing," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(477), pages 54-72, February.
    26. 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.
    27. Loren Brandt & Johannes Van Biesebroeck & Luhang Wang & Yifan Zhang, 2017. "WTO Accession and Performance of Chinese Manufacturing Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(9), pages 2784-2820, September.
    28. Mowery, David C & Oxley, Joanne E, 1995. "Inward Technology Transfer and Competitiveness: The Role of National Innovation Systems," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 19(1), pages 67-93, February.
    29. Rong, Shu & Liu, Kai & Huang, Si & Zhang, Qi, 2020. "FDI, labor market flexibility and employment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    30. Gamal, Awadh Ahmed Mohammed & Rambeli, Norimah & Abdul Jalil, Norasibah & Kuperan Viswanathan, K., 2019. "A modified Currency Demand Function and the Malaysian shadow economy: Evidence from ARDL bounds testing approach," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 266-281.
    31. Falkowski Krzysztof, 2018. "Competitiveness of the Baltic States in International High-Technology Goods Trade," Comparative Economic Research, Sciendo, vol. 21(1), pages 25-43, March.
    32. Haddad, Mona & Harrison, Ann, 1993. "Are there positive spillovers from direct foreign investment? : Evidence from panel data for Morocco," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 51-74, October.
    33. J. Vineesh Prakash & D. K. Nauriyal, 2021. "Integration and Interdependence Among Equity Markets in South Asia: Measuring Through ARDL Bounds Approach," Millennial Asia, , vol. 12(2), pages 229-251, August.
    34. Guo, Feng & Bo, Qingwen & Tong, Xun & Zhang, Xiaofei, 2020. "A paradoxical view of speed and quality on operational outcome: An empirical investigation of innovation in high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    35. Jonathan Batten & Xuan Vinh Vo, 2009. "An analysis of the relationship between foreign direct investment and economic growth," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(13), pages 1621-1641.
    36. Vargo, Stephen L. & Akaka, Melissa Archpru & Wieland, Heiko, 2020. "Rethinking the process of diffusion in innovation: A service-ecosystems and institutional perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 526-534.
    37. Xu, Bin, 2000. "Multinational enterprises, technology diffusion, and host country productivity growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 477-493, August.
    38. Kent Eriksson & Jan Johanson & Anders Majkgård & D Deo Sharma, 1997. "Experimental Knowledge and Costs in the Internationalization Process," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 28(2), pages 337-360, June.
    39. Kayalvizhi, P.N. & Thenmozhi, M., 2018. "Does quality of innovation, culture and governance drive FDI?: Evidence from emerging markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 175-191.
    40. Scully, Gerald W & Slottje, Daniel J, 1991. "Ranking Economic Liberty across Countries," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 69(2), pages 121-152, February.
    41. Jay Squalli & Kenneth Wilson, 2011. "A New Measure of Trade Openness," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(10), pages 1745-1770, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Teixeira, Aurora A.C. & Fortuna, Natércia, 2010. "Human capital, R&D, trade, and long-run productivity. Testing the technological absorption hypothesis for the Portuguese economy, 1960-2001," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 335-350, April.
    2. Leonard Lam, Fong Litt & Law, Siong Hook & Azman-Saini, W. N. W. & Khair-Afham, M. S. M. & Goh, Lim Thye, 2022. "High Technology Trade, Innovation and Economic Growth: Evidence from Aggregate and Disaggregate Trade Products," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 56(1), pages 15-31.
    3. Naijela Janaina Costa Silveira & Diogo Ferraz & Eduardo Polloni‐Silva & Diego Scarpa de Mello & Fernanda Pereira Sartori Falguera & Herick Fernando Moralles, 2022. "Modeling the building blocks of country‐level absorptive capacity: Comparing developed and emergent economies," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 783-824, July.
    4. Kemeny, Thomas, 2010. "Does Foreign Direct Investment Drive Technological Upgrading?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 1543-1554, November.
    5. Dalila NICET-CHENAF & Eric ROUGIER, 2009. "FDI and growth: A new look at a still puzzling issue," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2009-13, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    6. Burcu ŞENALP, 2018. "Foreign Direct Investment, Economic Growth and Economic Freedom: A Literature Survey," Istanbul Journal of Economics-Istanbul Iktisat Dergisi, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 68(2), pages 301-336, December.
    7. Muhammad Shahbaz & Mohammad Mafizur Rahman, 2012. "The Dynamic of Financial Development, Imports, Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth: Cointegration and Causality Analysis in Pakistan," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 13(2), pages 201-219, June.
    8. M. Ayhan Kose & Eswar Prasad & Kenneth Rogoff & Shang-Jin Wei, 2009. "Financial Globalization: A Reappraisal," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 56(2), pages 143-197.
    9. Azman-Saini, W.N.W. & Baharumshah, Ahmad Zubaidi & Law, Siong Hook, 2010. "Foreign direct investment, economic freedom and economic growth: International evidence," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1079-1089, September.
    10. Mohammad Mafizur Rahman & Muhammad Shahbaz, 2013. "Do Imports and Foreign Capital Inflows Lead Economic Growth? Cointegration and Causality Analysis in Pakistan," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 14(1), pages 59-81, March.
    11. Dalila NICET- CHENAF (GREThA-GRES) & Eric ROUGIER (GREThA-GRES), 2008. "Recent exports matter: export discoveries, FDI and Growth, an empirical assessment for MENA countries," Cahiers du GRES (2002-2009) 2008-17, Groupement de Recherches Economiques et Sociales.
    12. Benjamin Korankye & Xuezhou Wen & Appiah Michael & Easmond Baah-Nketiah, 2020. "Analyzing Economic Growth and Its impact on Poverty Reduction in Africa," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 4(12), pages 93-105.
    13. Benzaim, Samia & Ftiti, Zied & Khedhaouria, Anis & Djermane, Rebai, 2023. "US foreign investments: Technology transfer, relative backwardness, and the productivity growth of host countries," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 275-295.
    14. Ausloos, Marcel & Eskandary, Ali & Kaur, Parmjit & Dhesi, Gurjeet, 2019. "Evidence for Gross Domestic Product growth time delay dependence over Foreign Direct Investment. A time-lag dependent correlation study," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 527(C).
    15. Jellal, Mohamed & Bouzahzah, Mohamed, 2012. "Education investissements directs étrangers et croissance économique réflexions pour le maroc [Education foreign direct investments and economic growth some thoughts for morocco]," MPRA Paper 38883, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Muhammad Shahbaz & Miroslav Mateev & Salah Abosedra & Muhammad Ali Nasir & Zhilun Jiao, 2021. "Determinants of FDI in France: Role of transport infrastructure, education, financial development and energy consumption," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 1351-1374, January.
    17. Piva, Mariacristina., 2004. "The impact of technology transfer on employment and income distribution in developing countries : a survey of theoretical models and empirical studies," ILO Working Papers 993666903402676, International Labour Organization.
    18. Tuan, Chyau & Ng, Linda F.Y. & Zhao, Bo, 2009. "China's post-economic reform growth: The role of FDI and productivity progress," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 280-293, May.
    19. Jen‐Chung Mei, 2023. "Foreign direct investment and relative capacity: Theory and evidence," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 1175-1214, October.
    20. Della Temenggung, 2007. "Productivity Spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment: Indonesian Manufacturing Industry’s Experience 1975-2000," DEGIT Conference Papers c012_048, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.

    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:14:y:2023:i:3:p:315-340. 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.