| This dissertation is a cross-sectional examination of the recent corporate performance of high-technology manufacturing establishments in the Western New York region. The investigation is focused on the function of internal R&D, product and process innovation, and inter-firm technological linkages and their cumulative effects on the firms' performance, measured in terms of domestic and international business performance, inter-firm technical linkages, technology transfer, employment, and productivity. Using a broad definition of high-technology, establishment-level empirical data have been generated through a mail survey of two randomly stratified samples of high- and low-technology establishments.;This research provides evidence that the high-technology manufacturing establishments have the strongest significant positive associations with technological innovation and export performance. They exhibit significantly greater innovativeness based upon key innovative characteristics consisting of product innovation, R&D involvement and R&D expenditure as a proportion of total revenue, proportion of scientific/technical/engineering workers, the combined management priorities for both product and process innovation, technology licensing, and technological leadership. Greater emphasis is placed by these establishments on the export function; foreign markets are not treated as a secondary outlet for their products. Their higher innovative intensity has been found to be significantly associated with a higher level of international market diversity, but not with higher export intensity, which is in contrast to the low-technology firms that are associated with higher export intensity, but not higher international diversity. No significant differences between high- and low-technology establishments are observed in product diversity, process innovation, the extent and impact of the inter-firm technological linkages, employment, and productivity measures.;The externalization of various technical services is meaningful. The study suggests, for example, that approximately one half of the high-technology establishments imparts medium or high levels of importance to these external services for augmenting their internal innovation capabilities, and the same proportion of companies perceive medium to high impacts of these services on their domestic and international competitiveness. Externalization of these technical services also suggests a trend of rationalization and restructuring of the innovation process in these establishments.;The main contribution of this study is the establishment of new empirical evidence on the high-technology manufacturing firms' nature and spatial connotations of performance. The dissertation also addresses theoretical and practical implications arising from this research, and provides recommendations for further study. |
