Technology transfer,Turkish automotive industry, technology spillovers, Turkey

491 Pages·2012·6.37 MB·English

TECHNOLOGY SPILLOVERS AND TRANSFER THROUGH MNCS:
A CASE STUDY ON TURKISH AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
OF
MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

BY

ALPER SÖNMEZ

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR
THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN
THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

SEPTEMBER 2012
Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences

______________________
Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık
Director

I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy.

______________________
Prof. Dr. Erdal Özmen
Head of Department

This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully
adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

______________________
Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Teoman Pamukçu
Supervisor

Examining Committee Members

Prof. Dr. Ahmet Haşim Köse (AU, ECON) _____________________
Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Teoman Pamukçu (METU, STPS) _____________________
Prof. Dr. Erol Taymaz (METU, ECON) _____________________
Prof. Dr. Erkan Erdil (METU, ECON) _____________________
Assist. Prof. Dr. İ. Semih Akçomak (METU, STPS) _____________________
I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and
presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare
that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced
all material and results that are not original to this work.

Name, Last name: Alper SÖNMEZ

Signature:

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ABSTRACT

TECHNOLOGY SPILLOVERS AND TRANSFER THROUGH MNCS:
A CASE STUDY ON TURKISH AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

SÖNMEZ, Alper
Ph.D., Department of Economics
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Teoman Pamukçu

September 2012, 467 Pages

This thesis aims to provide evidence on whether FDI occurring in the Turkish economy has
any effect on domestic firms, especially whether and to what extent it leads to KTTs towards
domestic firms by paying attention to the role of MNCs. In order to do so, we firstly conduct
a series of econometric analyses to analyze the impact of FDI-related technology spillovers
on domestic firms’ productivity level in the Turkish manufacturing industry. Estimation
results produced positive evidence on horizontal and backward technology spillovers, while
negative evidence on forward spillovers. Secondly, we conduct a comprehensive empirical
research based on case study at firm-level in the Turkish automotive industry. By this study,
generally we aim to investigate the existence, nature and intensity of transfers, and what – if
any – kind of KTTs occur at both inter- and intra-firm level in the industry. For this aim, we
used two different research methods to collect detailed data and information from both
suppliers and AMMs at the firm-level. Our main findings in terms of KTTs at inter-firm
level can be summarized in this way: foreign suppliers are seen to dominate local suppliers
in terms of many indicators and absorptive capacity level; it seems that KTTs occur from
AMMs to their domestic suppliers mainly on providing documentations, assistances for
logistic management, quality control, know-how, R&D, co-design and co-development
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activities, designing and cost reduction; compared to foreign suppliers, local suppliers tend
to be involved in those production-product-training related KTTs which are less knowledge-
intensive and of a lesser quality. Also, performing R&D activities is found as the most
important firm level factor which influences positively KTTs, strategic collaboration
activities with the AMMs, and many technology activities of the suppliers. The technology
policies on attracting more FDI flows should be reviewed under the findings and insights of
this study since it is a necessary condition – although not sufficient - to have an efficient
absorptive capacity level and/or skilled human capital stock in order to get benefit from these
flows.

Keywords: Turkish Automotive Industry, Technology Spillover, Technology Transfer,
Multinational Corporations, Foreign Direct Investment
v
ÖZ

ÇUŞLAR YOLUYLA TEKNOLOJİ YAYILIMLARI VE TRANSFERİ:
TÜRKİYE OTOMOTİV SANAYİ ÜZERİNE BİR SAHA ÇALIŞMASI

SÖNMEZ, Alper
Doktora, İktisat Bölümü
Tez Yöneticisi: Doç. Dr. M. Teoman Pamukçu

Eylül 2012, 467 Sayfa

Bu tez ÇUŞ'ların rolüne dikkat çekerek Türk ekonomisinde Doğrudan Yabancı Yatırımların
(DYY) yurtiçi firmalara bir etkisinin olup olmadığı, özellikle yurtiçi firmalara yönelik bilgi
ve teknoloji transferlerine yol açıp açmadığı ve ne ölçüde bir etkisi olduğu üzerine bulgular
sunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Bunu yapabilmek için, ilk olarak, DYY ilişkili teknoloji
yayılımlarının Türk imalat sanayinde faaliyet gösteren firmaların verimlilik seviyeleri
üzerine bir etkisi olup olmadığını analiz etmek amacı ile bir dizi ekonometrik analiz
gerçekleştiriyoruz. Ekonometrik tahmin sonuçları yatay ve geriye doğru teknoloji yayılımları
açısından olumlu bulgular üretirken, ileri teknoloji yayılımları açısından negatif bulgular
üretmiştir. İkinci olarak, Türk otomotiv sanayiinde firma düzeyinde saha çalışmasına dayalı
kapsamlı deneysel bir araştırma gerçekleştiriyoruz. Bu çalışma ile genel olarak, sektörde
firma içi ve firmalar arası bilgi ve teknoloji transferlerinin varlığını, yoğunluğunu, doğasını
ve –eğer varsa- ne tür transferlerin gerçekleştiğini sorgulamayı amaçlıyoruz. Bu amaç için,
hem tedarikçiler hem de ana sanayi firmalarından firma düzeyinde ayrıntılı veri ve bilgi
toplamak için iki farklı araştırma yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Firmalar arası bilgi ve teknoloji
transferleri açısından başlıca bulgular şu şekilde özetlenebilir. Yabancı tedarikçiler birçok
gösterge ve massetme kapasitesi açısından yerel tedarikçilerden daha üstün gözükmektedir.
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Otomotiv ana sanayi firmalarından yurtiçi doğrudan tedarikçilerine transferler genel olarak
dokümantasyon sağlama, lojistik yönetimi, kalite kontrol, know-how, Ar-Ge, eş-tasarım/eş-
geliştirme faaliyetleri ve maliyet azaltma gibi konu başlıkları altında çeşitli yardımlar
şeklinde olmaktadır. Yabancı tedarikçiler ile karşılaştırıldığında, yerel tedarikçiler daha az
bilgi yoğun veya daha az kaliteli üretim-ürün-eğitim ile ilgili transferlere dâhil olmak
eğilimindedirler. Ayrıca, Ar-Ge faaliyetlerinde bulunmak, tedarikçilerin ana sanayi firmaları
ile stratejik işbirliği faaliyetlerini, çeşitli teknoloji faaliyetlerini ve transferleri pozitif yönde
etkileyen firma düzeyinde en önemli faktör olarak bulunmuştur. Daha fazla DYY çekmeye
yönelik teknoloji politikaları bu tezin bulguları ve çözümlemeleri ışığında gözden
geçirilmelidir, çünkü bu yatırımlardan fayda sağlamak için etkin bir massetme kapasitesi
ve/veya yetenekli beşeri sermaye stokuna sahip olmak –yeterli olmasa da- gerekli bir
koşuldur.

Anahtar Sözcükler: Türkiye Otomotiv Sanayi, Teknoloji Yayılımları, Teknoloji Transferi,
Çok Uluslu Şirketler, Doğrudan Yabancı Yatırım
vii
To My Parents
Gülser & İsmail Sönmez
&
My lovely wife Özlem

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr.
M. Teoman Pamukçu, for his encouragement, untiring support, comments, critiques,
guidance and resolute belief in me throughout this dissertation. Also, I would like to thank
him for the valuable time that he has devoted to all the periods of my study, over four years.
I am equally grateful to my advisory committee members, Prof. Dr. Erol Taymaz and Prof.
Dr. Ahmet Haşim Köse, for their constant supports, suggestions, insightful comments,
encouragements, and constructive remarks. I should express my heartfelt gratitude to Prof.
Dr. Erkan Erdil for his encouragement, providing extremely valuable comments,
constructive critiques and helpful insights for the improvement of my study. I would also
like to thank Assist. Prof. Dr. İ. Semih Akçomak for serving on my examining committee
and offering many helpful insights.

I am also very grateful to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Garrick Blalock who accepted me as a “visiting
fellow” to the Applied Economics and Management (AEM) Department at Cornell
University, the USA for one year to conduct a part of my doctoral research. During that year,
Dr. Blalock helped me so much to improve my work, and I am indebted to him for all he has
done for me. Moreover, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Loren Tauer, the director of AEM
Department of Cornell University, for inviting me to Cornell and providing me opportunities
to work on my dissertation when I was in Cornell.

My particular gratitude goes to the participating firms without whose cooperation this
dissertation would not have been possible. At various stages of this study, I benefited greatly
from the interviews with many top-executives of companies in Turkey automotive main
industry. My sincerest gratitude goes out to the people of these companies who devoted their
valuable time to express and to share their ideas and experiences with me. In this context, I
am especially grateful to Tülay Altay Akarsoy, Volkan Bayraktar, Ernur Mutlu, Dr. Orhan
Alankuş, Hakan Özenç, Ali Göktan, Ahmet Altekin, Turgut Cankılıç, Ali Çavuşoğlu, Dr.
Senem Erdem Albaş, Ferit Tam, and Önder Molva for helping me out arranging and
conducting interviews. I would also like to extend my thanks to all the managers of suppliers
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who took time off from their busy schedules to participate and to answer my questionnaire
for providing valuable information for the study.

I would like to express my acknowledgements to the institutions provided financial supports
for this study, namely, TUBITAK (109K587) for the project entitled “Analysis of Knowledge
and Technology Transfer by Multinational Companies to Local Suppliers in the Turkish
Automotive Industry”, and Faculty Development Program (OYP) of METU (BAP-08-11-
DPT-2002K120510).

I want to express my thanks to Prof. Dr. Ercan Tezer (General Secretary of OSD), Celal
Kaya (President of TAYSAD) and Özlem Gülşen (General Secretary of TAYSAD) for their
professional supports especially for providing me letter of supports in order to conduct
interviews and questionnaire survey with their member firms.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Prof. Dr. S. Nazli Wasti Pamuksuz from METU
for her valuable advices, comments, encouragement, and for sharing me her research
experiences in the field of automotive industry that contributed so much to the dissertation. I
would like to thank also to Prof. Dr. Michel Cincera for giving me the opportunity to discuss
and improve my study; to Dr. Kriengkrai Techakanont for sharing me his knowledge in the
field of technology transfer; and to Müfit Akyos for his valuable comments and helpful
insights for the improvement of my questionnaire form.

I would like to express my thanks to my colleagues of Department of Economics at METU
for their friendship during my stay as a graduate student and a research assistant.

I wish to thank my mother, Gülser, my dad, İsmail, and my brother, Ahmet, for their support,
patience and standing behind me in this difficult endeavor. Last but not the least, I want to
express my deepest gratitude to my wife Özlem who have shared the burden of my study
most, for her everlasting support and patience, encouragement and understanding, and for
sharing my difficult times.

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