The increasing pressure of competition in a globalizing world forces the countries that aim to grow rapidly to strengthen their market share. This requires technological innovation, and its primary source is scientific knowledge. Hence, the main aim of this study is to investigate the determining role of the sectoral technology intensity on the impact of international technology spillovers channels on innovation performance. For the aim of the study, 900 observations that belong to 320 firms for the period of 2009–2016 are obtained by matching approximately 350.000 of the survey data of the Business Statistics, Research and Development. Activities and Innovation provided by TUİK. Findings estimated by the System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) indicate that technology absorptive capacity has a positive and significant effect on the innovation performance of the firms operating only in high-tech industries. Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) has a stronger effect on firms' innovation performance in low-technology-intensive sectors than in high-tech-intensive sectors. There is no significant difference between sectoral technology intensities in the effect of export activities on innovation performance of firms. On the other hand, technology transfer expenditures have a statistically slightly positive and significant effect only for firms operating in high-technology-intensive sectors. Consequently, the government should support high technology intensive sectors instead of traditional low technology intensive sectors in order to benefit more from the international technology diffusion channels in Turkish manufacturing industry. This strategy can lead to a long-term economic growth.
Convergence and polarization in global income levels: a review of recent results on the role of international technology diffusion
