Scientific linkages and firm productivity: Panel data evidence from Taiwanese electronics firms

Using a panel of electronics firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, this paper explores the spillover of scientific research to the private sector by looking at the impact of the intensity a patent's backward citation of scientific publications relative to citation of other patents on the patent-owning firm's productivity. To identify the causal effect, we use measures of a firm's financial constraints as instrumental variables to account for the potential endogeneity of scientific citation intensity of a patent. The empirical results suggest that the citation of scientific publications by a patent has a strong and positive effect on the patent-owning firm's productivity. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.