Which Portuguese firms are more innovative? The importance of multinationals and exporters

In this study we test the trade Global Engagement hypothesis in which firms more globally engaged – either multinationals or exporters – are more innovative. The test is applied to 4818 Portuguese enterprises´ data for the period 2002-2004 through the use of the fourth Portuguese Community Innovation Survey. We estimated several Knowledge Production Functions assuming that knowledge outputs result from the combination of some knowledge inputs with the flow of ideas coming from existing stock of knowledge. We found that more internationally exposed firms create more knowledge output, than their domestic counterparts; indeed, more globalized firms use more inputs and have the opportunity to use a larger stock of knowledge. Notwithstand, the observed superiority of more internationally exposed firms is also the result of their globalized nature, not directly connected with knowledge inputs or information flows.