Impact of R&D Intensity on the Firm Growth: Evidence from Korean Manufacturing Firms

The objective of this study is to demonstrate the impact of R&D intensity on growth of manufacturing firms in Korea. The data on the listed Korean manufacturing firms from 1985-2005 were used for the panel analysis and the firm growth factors around Asian financial crisis in the 1990's were compared and analyzed in whole industry and high-tech industry. The following conclusions have been drawn from the result: 1) the R&D intensity became almost double passing Asian financial crisis; 2) after the financial crisis in the entire manufacturing industry, it showed that there was positive R&D premium effect on the growth of the firm; 3) the R&D premium impact in the high-tech industry was less than the mean impact of the whole industry. In addition, in high-tech industry, it showed that the higher productivity firms, younger firms and smaller size firms have more advantage in growth.