Knowledge and Productivity in the World's Largest Manufacturing Corporations Level:Panel Data analysis on Compustat and Patent data

This paper examines the relationship between the characteristics of firm knowledge in terms of capital, diversity and relatedness, and productivity. Panel data regression models suggest that unlike knowledge diversity, knowledge capital and knowledge relatedness explain a substantial share of the variance of firm productivity. Activities based on a related set of technological knowledge are more productive than those based on unrelated knowledge because the cost of co-ordinating productive activities decreases as the knowledge used in these activities is being integrated efficiently. The impact of knowledge relatedness on productivity in high-technology sectors is higher than in other sectors.