Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Costa, Ionara
Author-Email: costa@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT
Author-Name: Marin, Anabel
Author-Email: a.i.marin@sussex.ac.uk
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Sussex, SPRU
Title: Foreign-owned firms and technological capabilities in the Argentinean 
	 manufacturing industry
Abstract: This deals with the technological development implications of the 
	 substantial and long-dated presence of foreign-owned affiliates in the 
	 Argentinean manufacturing industry. It put forward the argument that the 
	 learning process of foreign-owned firms should be central in the 
	 analysis of the technological impacts of inward FDI. In other words, FDI 
	 impacts to host economies are dependent not exclusively on the 
	 technology and knowledge that multinational corporations are willing to 
	 transfer to their overseas affiliates, nor on the absorptive capacity of 
	 domestic firms. Instead, the technological learning that takes place 
	 within the foreign-owned firms is crucial. In order to shed some light 
	 on the level of learning reached by foreignowned firms integrating the 
	 Argentinean economy, this paper analyses the technological profiles of 
	 MNC affiliates in the manufacturing industry, and compares them with 
	 those of domestically-owned firms. This analysis is based on proxies for 
	 different levels of technological capabilities, calculated by means of 
	 the second Argentinean innovation survey, which was carried out by 
	 INDEC, the Argentinean National Council of Statistics, for the period 
	 1998-2001. The analysis suggests that foreign-owned affiliates seem to 
	 play an important role in terms of diffusion of technologies generated 
	 elsewhere. Yet, the results are not so clear when the local generation 
	 of knowledge and technology is considered. In general terms, the 
	 analytical exercise made here suggests reasonable development of 
	 operational capabilities, coupled with shallow interaction, monitoring, 
	 improvement and generation capabilities both by foreign affiliates and 
	 domestics firms. In other words, the findings suggest the accumulation 
	 of substantial capabilities for using existing technologies, but only 
	 meagre capabilities for locally-generated new ones.   
Classification-JEL: C49, F23, F29, L29, L60, O33, O39
Keywords: Foreign-owned Affiliates, Manufacturing Industry, Technological
	 Capability, Diffusion of Innovations, Organizational Learning, Argentina 
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 2007
Number: 2007-036
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2007/wp2007-036.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2007036