Export Performance and Firm Characteristics: Special Reference to Innovation Factors

수출성과와 기업특성: 기술혁신요인을 중심으로

This paper investigates the relationships between export and firm characteristics, focusing on technology factors. It is based on a longitudinal data covering listed firms in the Korean manufacturing industry. A regression model for the determinant of export/sales ratio including dynamic adjustment process is tested on a cross-section sample of the year 2001. Empirical findings suggest that there is no significant relationship between export/sales ratio and firm's technological level. The hypotheses concerning human capital intensity and physical capital intensity are also rejected. But we found a positive and inversely U-shaped relationship between firm size and export/sales for basic material and capital good industry. As a dynamic aspect, we found that the pattern of export/sales ratio changed unstably over the last decade. Finally, some policy implications are presented.