High-tech firms' long-term export behaviour [Elektronische Ressource] : the experience of German and UK companies / von Helmut Fryges

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• Publié par: leuphana_universitat_luneburg
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 34
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

High-Tech Firms’ Long-Term Export Behaviour –
The Experience of German and UK Companies







Vom Fachbereich Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften der
Universität Lüneburg

zur Erlangung des Grades
Doktor der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften (Dr. rer. pol.)
genehmigte Dissertation


von Helmut Fryges
aus Remscheid



















Eingereicht am: 17. Mai 2005
Mündliche Prüfung am: 30. Juni 2005
Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Joachim Wagner
Prüfungsausschuss: Wagner, Apl. Prof. Dr. Thomas Wein,
Prof. Dr. Ursula Weisenfeld

Erscheint als elektronische Dissertation unter:
http://kirke.ub.uni-lueneburg.de/ Preface
Shortly after I started to work at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim
in November 1998, the head of my department, Georg Licht, introduced me to the topic of interna-
tionalisation of young technology-oriented firms. At that time, a joint research team comprised of
Oliver Bürgel and Gordon Murray from London Business School and Andreas Fier and Georg
Licht from the ZEW was investigating a unique data set of 600 newly founded technology-
oriented firms in Germany and the UK that were surveyed in winter 1997/1998. Although I did not
contribute to the analyses of the Anglo-German research team at that time, I had the opportunity of
doing some econometric research of my own. Thereby, I became familiar with the questionnaires
the conducted survey was based on, the resulting data set, and the theoretical and empirical litera-
ture related to individual firms’ export activities.
Thus, it was almost self-evident that when Gordon Murray (now working at the University of
Exeter) and Georg Licht planned to contact the original sample of 600 respondent firms a second
time via a telephone survey in 2003, I became a member of the new research team which was
completed by Marc Cowling from London Business School. I greatly enjoyed the work on this
research project, in particular, because I had the opportunity to participate in each individual step
of the project – starting with the development of the questionnaires, through supervising the Ger-
man telephone survey conducted at the ZEW, preparing the data set, and finally carrying out the
empirical analyses that constitute the key part of this thesis. Using data of both the first and the
second survey, I examined the long-term export behaviour of the firms sampled. Such a longitudi-
nal perspective has rarely been found in the related literature to date, leading to new interesting
research questions, some of which are investigated in this thesis.
Of course, the completion of this thesis was only possible with the help and the support of numer-
ous individuals and institutions. First of all, I gratefully acknowledge financial support from the
HSBC Innovation and Technology Group and the Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of
Industrial Society which financed the 2003 survey. Further, I thank the Centre for European Eco-
nomic Research (ZEW) for providing me with the opportunity to write my thesis whilst working at
the institute for the last two years.
Special thanks go to my supervisor Joachim Wagner. Since individual firms’ export behaviour
belongs to his main research interest, it was an optimal decision to contact him and he fortunately
agreed to supervise my dissertation. However, Joachim Wagner did not only make useful sugges-
tions in terms of the theoretical background, the econometric methods applied, and the interpreta-
1 tion of the empirical results. He also always encouraged me to realise my ideas and always
promptly answered my questions. In these ways, he contributed significantly to the rapid comple-
tion of this thesis.
Since this study is an empirical work, its quality heavily depends on the data set used for the
analyses. Thus, I am deeply indebted to Oliver Bürgel, Andreas Fier, Georg Licht, and Gordon
Murray for their efforts in conducting the 1997 survey and preparing the resulting data set. To the
same degree, I am obliged to Marc Cowling, Georg Licht, and Gordon Murray for their valuable
contributions in our joint work on the research design of the second survey and the development of
the questionnaires used for the computer-aided telephone interviews in 2003. I also thank Thorsten
Doherr for programming both the German and the English versions of the questionnaires. Special
thanks go to Marc Cowling and Gordon Murray for carrying out the 2003 survey in the UK.
The empirical analyses of this thesis are actually an extension of the 1997 study. Thus, when
carrying out my empirical research, I not only profited from the data the Anglo-German research
team collected in 1997. I also benefited from the corresponding research report when it came to the
specification of my econometric models and the interpretation of the results. The careful work of
the research team that conducted the first survey is therefore gratefully acknowledged. Helpful
comments and proposals that significantly improved different parts of this study were also put
forward by Dirk Czarnitzki, Ulrich Kaiser, François Laisney, and Michael Woywode and are
highly appreciated.
Furthermore, I thank Marc Rennert, Martin Becker, Natalie Gaier, Stefan Hoffmann, and Thea
Platz for their competent research assistance and Tyler Schaffner and Andrew Flower for excellent
proofreading. Last but not least, many thanks go to my colleagues at the ZEW who patiently
endured me and my bad moods on days when I was frustrated by the work on this thesis and
dissatisfied with the progress I made. Today, however, having successfully completed my thesis, I
primarily think back to the pleasure I had when dealing with the interesting topic of the interna-
tionalisation of firms and I hope that this pleasure is reflected for the reader of the following pages.
Helmut Fryges
2 Table of Contents
List of Tables.................................................................................................................................................. 5
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................ 7
Boxes............................................................................................................................................................... 7
1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 8
2 Development of High-Tech Industries .............................................................................................. 15
2.1 Definition of High-Tech Industries..............................................................................................15
2.2 Firm Dynamics in Aggregated High-Tech Sectors...................................................................... 18
2.3 Development of Sales in Aggregated High-Tech Sectors............................................................ 33
2.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 40
3 Description of the Data Set ................................................................................................................ 43
3.1 Mail Survey Methodology (1997)................................................................................................ 43
3.2 Telephone Survey Methodology (2003) ...................................................................................... 49
3.3 Survival Bias and Non-Response Bias......................................................................................... 53
4 Export Behaviour of Technology-Oriented Firms........................................................................... 55
4.1 Theories of Internationalisation ................................................................................................... 56
4.2 Foreign Market Entry and Exit .................................................................................................... 66
4.2.1 Literature Review .................................................................................................................... 67
4.2.2 Descriptive Analysis................................................................................................................ 68
4.2.3 Econometric Implementation................................................................................................... 72
4.2.4 Empirical Results....... 77
4.2.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 85
4.3 The Degree of Internationalisation............................................................................................... 87
4.3.1 Literature Review...... 89
4.3.2 Descriptive Analysis..... 92
4.3.3 Econometric Implementation 96
4.3.4 Empirical Results..................................................................................................................... 99
4.3.5 Conclusion .............................................................