A Study on the Determination of Export Activities of Korean Manufacturing Companies : Focused on R&D Activities

Background/Objectives: For this study, the 2018 Korean Innovation Survey (KIS) by Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI) was used to analyze the impact on the exports of Korean manufacturing companies. Methods/Statistical analysis: The analysis consists of two main themes. One is to look at the factors influencing the decision on the export by using the logit model, and the other is to look at the factors influencing the decision on the export by region in the major overseas markets and its marginal effects by using the multinomial logit model. Findings: According to our result, the factors influencing the exports of the companies were classified largely into factors of R&D activities, corporate and industrial characteristics, and government support benefits. As a result of the analysis, for the R&D activity factor, internal R&D activities, R&D investment per capita, and proportion of personnel dedicated to R&D activities were found out to have a statistically significant positive (+) effect on the export activity. Improvements/Applications: This study is meaningful in the way that the effects on the exports of Korean manufacturing companies were viewed through various R&D activities, corporate and industrial characteristics, and government support, and examined the differences in the results of each factor according to changes in the major overseas market.