學界一般認為外人直接投資（FDI）是技術移轉的重要管道，因此也是促進經濟發展的重要因素。對於台灣的經濟發展，FDI扮演著重要角色，舉例來說，摩托車與液晶面板是台灣的重要產業，在其發展的過程中，來自日本企業的技術移轉扮演著關鍵角色。雖然已經有許多計量經濟學的文獻探討跨國公司對投資地所帶來的利益，但是關於跨國公司的人力資源所帶來的科技移轉效益之相關性研究，卻不多見。另一方面，不少管理學文獻指出，跨國母公司所派遣到海外子公司的員工，是母公司對子公司科技移轉的重要關鍵。然而管理學的觀點，由於缺乏母公司海外派遣員工等資料，因此相關的實證研究相當稀少。在此研究中，我們將以一套台灣企業與日本企業的整合性資料，去檢驗跨國公司的海外派遣員工的人數（在台日商的日籍員工數），如何影響投資地（台灣）的科技移轉與其他效應。在資料蒐集方面，此研究將進行跨國合作。此研究計畫主持人，將委託其在京都大學念博士班的日籍友人稻田光朗（也是未來論文投稿的共同作者），在京都大學圖書館內蒐集日商對台投資相關資料（海外進出企業総覧；会社四季報），來獲得在台日商的CEO國籍、日籍員工人數、與台灣企業的資本合作程度等資料。此外，我們已經透過中華經濟研究院的協助，取得1998 到2005年的「工廠校正暨營運調查」，這個資料對於研究科技移轉是個相當理想的資料，因為內含有各個企業的詳細營運資料，包括：購買科技（科技移轉），自行研發與生產效率的數據。最後，我們將整合上述兩套資料，將「工廠校正暨營運調查」中，有日商入股的企業區分出來，再比較日籍員工數不同對企業科技移轉與營運有何不同影響。在實證策略上，我們將以2002年中國在FDI管制的政策改變，設計為影響日商在台子公司經營成本改變的實驗機制，去測試這樣的經營成本改變，對於在台日商的日籍CEO/員工的人數，技術移轉與生產效益的不同影響。我們的研究預計可以有三項貢獻（此研究完成後也預計投稿三篇SSCI論文）：(1)何種產業的在台日商依賴較多的日籍員工？不同產業的日籍員工數之變化模式；(2)大陸對於外資管制的政策改變，如何影響台灣日商的日籍員工數；(3)在台日商日籍員工數變化對於企業科技移轉與營運成效的影響。以上三項貢獻，將對於跨國企業的企業組織與科技移轉的兩個領域，有相當大的貢獻。
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is regarded as an important channel of knowledge transfer and thus economic growth. This is also true in Taiwan: the development of some of the main export industries, such as auto-bicycle and liquid crystal display, is often attributed to technology transfer from Japanese firms. Though many econometric studies document the importance and benefits of multinational companies (MNCs), studies on how MNC’s human resource affects technology transfer are rare. On the other hand management literature has suggested expatriates (employees that the headquarter of an MNC sends to its subsidiaries) are key in technology transfer within MNCs, but quantitative investigation is rare. Both are due to the lack of data that contain information both on expatriates and other characteristics. We propose to explore the relation between expatriates and subsidiaries’ performance by using a new combination of Taiwanese and Japanese data that together allow us to observe the identity of the subsidiaries CEO, the number of Japanese employees in the subsidiaries, the degree of technology transfer as well as other characteristics. As an empirical strategy, we propose to use a Chinese regulation change towards FDI in 2002 as a natural experiment that affect the cost of operation of Japanese subsidiaries’ activities in Taiwan to estimate the causal impacts of Japanese CEO and Japanese employees. We do so by investigating whether subsidiaries that rely on those people changed technology transfer, local R&D and productivity. We propose to proceed in three steps, and plan to write one paper at each step. The first step analyzes what types of firms and industries rely more on Japanese CEO and employees and how this pattern changes over time. The second step analyzes how the Chinese regulation change affected Japanese firms’ decision on where they send their employees to. Finally, the third step estimate the impact of Japanese CEO and Japanese employees on technology transfer from Taiwan and Japan using that regulation change as a natural experiment. These results will have contributions on the two strands of literature in both management studies and economics: the organization of MNCs and the impact of MNCs on technology transfer and development. For the first literature our results give new causal evidence on what type of organizational feature matters in the activities of MNCs. For the second literature, we provide evidence of a mechanism how MNCs can affect technology transfer and development.
