Abstract
High-tech exports play a crucial role on the growth and prosperity of the national economy due to higher added value and higher profitability; however, gaining a competitive advantage and increasing high-tech exports is arduous because of the highly competitive environment in global markets. Also, increasing the value of the national brand through the improvement of foreign customers' mental image of products made in a specific country can play an undeniable role in the increase of customer loyalty and the growth of high-tech exports. Therefore, we intended to evaluate the impact of the national brand on high-tech exports in 14 selected developing countries (sample group) and 12 selected developed and emerging countries (control group) by using panel data and generalized method of moments (GMM), during the period 2011–2018. The results showed the positive and significant impact of the national brand in both groups, but the estimated coefficient is higher in developed and emerging countries. It means that although the improvement of the national brand stimulates the demands for high-tech products from foreign customers, countries that have had more capacity to increase the production and supply of these products have been more successful in meeting the surplus demand created. Therefore, developing countries should take action to improve the national brand, by moving towards a knowledge-based economy, and at the same time, they have to increase their capacity of production and supply of high-tech products to be able to meet the demands for these products in global markets.JEL Classification: F14, M16, F31, K11.