Open AccessMultinational corporations as channels for international technology transfer: Evidence from the South African innovation survey
Author(s) -
Nazeem Mustapha,
Pedro Mendi
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
suid-afrikaanse tydskrif vir ekonomiese en bestuurswetenskappe/south african journal of economic and management sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.277
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 2222-3436
pISSN - 1015-8812
DOI - 10.4102/sajems.v18i1.787
Subject(s) - multinational corporation , subsidiary , business , technology transfer , product (mathematics) , industrial organization , international trade , emerging markets , process (computing) , product innovation , economic geography , economics , mathematics , finance , geometry , computer science , operating system
In this article, we investigate the importance of South African subsidiaries of foreign multinationals as channels to introduce foreign innovations in the South African market. We use firm-level data from the 2008 wave of the South African Innovation Survey, which covers the period 2005-07. We find that subsidiaries of foreign multinationals are significantly more likely to introduce product and process innovations, as well as foreign new products and processes than domestic firms. However, we also find that they are not more likely to introduce foreign innovations developed in collaboration with or mostly by another firm outside their own multinational, or innovations that are new to the South African market