Technology imports and R&D efforts of Korean manufacturing firms

This paper analyzes the relationship between technology imports and R&D efforts of Korean manufacturing firms by a two-stage method. In the first stage, using a sample representing the whole population of firms, the paper shows that firms importing technology tend to commit themselves to R&D efforts through having formal R&D institutes. In the second stage, it shows that among firms with formal R&D institutes, technology imports have non-complementary relationship with R&D efforts. Moreover, when technology imports are considered interactively with international inventive activity, they turn out to have rather a substitutive relationship with R&D efforts.