María García-Vega

Determinants of International R&D Outsourcing: The Role of Trade

This paper investigates the determinants of international R&D outsourcing, in particular the role of trade. We sketch a monopolistic competition model with heterogeneous firms where outsourcing increases a firms fixed transaction costs as well as its productivity. Financial constraints affect the decision to outsource R&D more to nonexporters than to exporters. In contrast, exporters are more sensitive to a lack of information because they have higher losses when there is technology leakage. We test these predictions using a panel database of Spanish companies. The results highlight the relevance of information in competitive markets, and the role of trade to induce companies to engage in other globalization strategies.

Determinants of Abandoning Innovative Activities: Evidence from Spanish Firms

Abstract We empirically analyse the effect of firms’ barriers to innovation on the probability of abandoning innovation projects. Specifically, we study factors related to the availability of finance, knowledge and market conditions. We use a sample of more than 8,300 innovative Spanish firms for the period 2005–2007. We find that all obstacles to innovation have a positive effect on the probability of abandoning innovative activities. Results show that market-related factors seem to be the most important determinants of innovation failure. Analyzing results by firm size, we find that, for small-medium firms, the main factors that lead to abandoning innovative projects are competition from established firms and market uncertainty. In contrast, for large firms, the most important barriers are the lack of qualified personnel and the availability of external finance. These results might suggest that large and small-medium firms differ in the scale and complexity of their innovative projects.

The Internationalisation of R&D and the Knowledge Production Function

This paper considers the effect of acquisition FDI on the knowledge production function. We distinguish between acquisitions by MNEs from technologically leading countries and those behind the technological frontier. We show that both acquire similarly R&D intensive domestic firms, but there are important differences post-acquisition. Acquisitions from technologically intensive countries reduce domestic R&D effort, in favour of an increase in foreign technology transfers, which suggests complementarities in the knowledge assets of the MNE and the target firm as a reason for FDI. In contrast, consistent with technology sourcing FDI, acquisitions from non-leading countries increase internal R&D efforts.