Horizontal FDI and Internal R&D of Local Firms in Emerging Economies: A Coopetition Perspective
从竞合视角研究外资与本土企业间的无形资产差距如何非线性影响本土企业的内部研发投入，发现适度差距最能刺激研发，且出口强度和国有产权会调节这一关系。
Abstract This study advances a coopetition perspective to argue that an intangibility gap, defined as the difference in intangible asset intensity between industry-frontier foreign firms and local firms, generates both competitive threats and cooperative opportunities for local firms. Thus, an intangibility gap may affect local firms’ internal research and development (R&D) efforts beyond a linear, catching-up way of thinking. Using a sample of manufacturing firms in China, we find that intangibility gap has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the internal R&D intensity of local firms such that a moderate intangibility gap is more likely to stimulate local firms’ R&D than a small or large intangibility gap. Moreover, the results show that export intensity and state ownership of local firms serve as two boundary conditions under which the inverted U-shaped relationship becomes less and more pronounced, respectively.