隨著全球化的發展，對外投資不僅在國際經貿中所扮演的角色愈來愈重要，型態也愈來愈多元，呈現出與過去大不相同的特性與風貌。這樣的發展趨勢，再度引起學者對廠商對外投資的影響效果產生興趣。過去有關對外投資影響效果的文獻，主要是以探討對外投資對地主國經濟發展的影響為主，探討對母國或母公司影響的文獻則不多，特別是開發中國家的廠商對外投資對母國影響的研究更是付之闕如。為了彌補此方面文獻之不足，本研究利用台灣製造業1987-2003年的廠商資料來探討廠商對外投資對其技術升級之影響。 廠商對外投資對母國經濟影響的相關議題在台灣一直受到持續的關注，1991年政府開放廠商赴大陸投資之後，該議題更是引發熱切的討論。部分學者擔憂廠商對外投資後將造成國內產業的空洞化；但有另一部分的學者則主張，台灣只要持續技術升級及產業升級就可避免空洞化的危機。有鑑於此，本研究利用三個經濟指標，研發支出、生產力與效率，及技能提升(skill-upgrading)來檢驗不具競爭優勢的產業或附加價值鏈外移，是否有利於台灣進行技術升級。 本研究首先建立了一個理論模型來探討廠商對外投資對其國內研發活動的影響。研究結果顯示，廠商對外投資對其國內的研發支出可能同時產生兩個相反的影響效果，即互補效果及替代效果。互補效果主要來自於廠商對外投資後的「規模擴大效果」，而替代效果的發生則會因廠商對外投資動機之不同，而有不同的來源管道。 本研究實證模型的創新之處在於利用propensity score matching的配對方式搭配difference-in-differences的估計方法來控制實證研究中常會出現的自我選擇誤差(self-selection bias)及互為因果(causality)的問題。本研究採用了四種不同的配對方式來建構對外投資廠商的配對樣本，並發現Nearest available matching within calipers的配對方式可以產生最佳的配對效果，在不犧牲太多樣本數的情況下，顯著縮小對外投資廠商在對外投資前與無對外投資廠商的特性差距。 本研究的實證結果發現，僅管對外投資廠商，特別是赴開發中國家投資的廠商可能對母國的就業造成不利的衝擊，但卻能夠顯著提高母國的研發支出、技術效率及勞工技能，顯示廠商對外投資確實有助於台灣的技術升級。研究結果認為台灣政府應重新思考產業政策及社會福利政策的制定方向，以解決這些新的經濟議題。 / Foreign direct investment has played an increasingly important role in the world economy and, as a consequence, an immense amount of research has investigated its determinants and effects. However, while previous studies have focused on the impact of inward FDI on the host countries, there has been relatively little research on the impact of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on the home countries in general, and on developing economies (LDCs) in particular. To fill this gap in the literature, this thesis investigates the home-country effects of the OFDI activity of Taiwanese manufacturing firms. To be specific, the impact of OFDI on the investing firms’ domestic R&D spending, productivity and efficiency, employment and skill-upgrading is examined. A theoretical model is developed to examine the relationship between OFDI and domestic R&D activity. It is shown that OFDI could induce two opposing effects on domestic R&D spending, namely, a complementary effect and a substitution effect. The complementary effect arises mainly due to the “sales-increasing effect” of overseas investment. Substitution effects might arise from different channels depending on FDI motives. Firm-level panel data covering the period 1987-2003 are used in the empirical analysis. The novelty in this thesis is the application of a propensity score matching approach combined with the difference-in-differences method to control for the possible selection bias related to the empirical analysis. Four different matching methods are used to construct matched samples of Taiwan’s OFDI firms. The empirical results reveal that, although Taiwanese overseas investment, especially the investment in LDCs, reduces domestic employment, it stimulates investing firms’ domestic R&D spending, technology efficiency and skill intensity. This implies that while the OFDI activity of Taiwanese firms has brought about a positive effect on their technological upgrading, which is beneficial to the industrial development and resource allocation of the economy, the recent increase in the unemployment in Taiwan could to some extent be attributed to the OFDI activity. It also suggests that the Taiwanese government might need to reconsider its industrial policy as well as social welfare policy in order to deal with these new economic issues.

本文研究目的，在於探討台灣資訊科技（information technology）產業廠商的研發資本存量及產業內（intra-industry）研發資本存量的外溢效果（spillover effect）對於生產技術效率的影響。文中所採用的資料，主要來自於台灣經濟新報資料庫及廠商的財務報表，利用1997-2003年402家於台灣證券交易所上市及上櫃廠商的財務資料，並對Battese and Coelli（1995）所提出隨機邊界生產函數（stochastic frontier production function）與技術無效率效果（technical inefficiency effect）模型，同時進行實證估計。本文主要研究發現為，不論是以整體IT產業的廠商來看，或是分別就電腦硬體產業、半導體產業、通訊產業及光電產業的廠商來看，產業內R&D資本的外溢對於廠商的生產技術效率有正向的影響。但廠商自身的R&D資本存量對於其生產技術效率卻無顯著的影響，而軟體產業的廠商，卻現負面影響。另外，台灣IT產業廠商亦存在著技術進步的情形，但其技術效率則隨著時間而遞減。再則，本文研究也發現，台灣的IT產業中，半導體產業的廠商在生產技術效率方面表現最好，光電產業的廠商則最差。此外，上市廠商的技術效率較上櫃廠商佳。而有在科學園區設立工廠的廠商，除了半導體產業的廠商之外，其他四個產業的在科學工業園區設立工廠的廠商生產技術效率與未於科學園區設立工廠的廠商並無顯著差異。 / This paper aims to investigate the influence of and intra-industry spillovers of R&D spending on firm’s technical efficiency of production in Taiwan’s information technology (IT) industry. Firm-level panel data of 402 firms in IT industry from 1997~2003 provided by Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) data bank and the stochastic frontier production function and technical inefficiency function proposed by Battese and Coelli (1995) are adopted in this study. The primary finding of this study is that the intra-industry spillovers of R&D spending on firm’s technical efficiency exist in Taiwan’s IT industry. This finding also exists in sub-industries of IT industry: computer hardware industry, semi-conductor industry, software industry, telecom industry, and photoelectric industry. However, influence of R&D capital on firm’s technical efficiency is insignificant in whole IT industry in Taiwan. Besides, in the period, there are technical advancements in firms of whole IT industry. Finally, the performance of the IT firms inside the Science Park is insignificant better than the firms outside in terms of technical efficiency, but excluding semi-conductor firms.

This thesis comprises three research essays. The study documents empirical evidence around the research themes by analysing a sample of the UK’s listed non-financial firms from 2005 to 2018. It applied panel data analysis (fixed or random effects) techniques and the potential endogeneity issue is controlled by using the two-step system, GMM. Earnings-management research holds that manipulating a firm's real activities is more damaging to its long-term growth and value than accruals manipulation. Therefore, by building on agency theory and emphasising board monitoring, first essay investigates the role of independent directors’ tenure and connection to several boards in controlling real earnings management (REM). This study finds that independent directors elected to board before appointment of current CEO are negatively associated with the level of REM. Furthermore, this research provides evidence that REM is higher in those firms whose INDs are connected to several boards at a time. Though economically insignificant in most of the models, this research also shows that the association between INDs’ tenure and REM varies with the phases of their tenure. Directors in the early stage of their tenure are observed as being less effective in controlling REM. However, as INDs’ tenure grows, they employ better oversight over management's conduct, thereby reducing REM. Contrary to this, the extended tenure of INDs is associated with higher REM. These results collectively suggest that the board monitoring role protects the stakes of shareholders/stakeholders by constraining REM; when INDs are free from the influence of CEO, they are not over-committed due to their presence on several boards, and they have moderate board tenure which is neither too short nor too long. Furthermore, drawing on collective contributions and group performance perspectives, second essay explores the role of board diversity in the firm’s R&D investment decisions. Additionally, building on a fault-line argument about a team's demographic attributes, the current research decomposes the impact of demographic and cognitive diversity on R&D spending. The research observes a positive relationship between board diversity and the level of R&D spending. Moreover, this research documents that cognitive diversity is positively associated with R&D investment. However, demographic diversity has an insignificant relationship with firms’ spending on R&D projects. Further, this study confirms that demographic diversity negatively moderates the relationship between cognitive diversity and R&D investment. These results suggest that the board's attributes as a group carry the significance to influence the decisions having strategic importance. The findings on the sub-dimensions of board diversity imply that board functional/cognitive diversity is more relevant to corporate decisions and outcomes than is demographic diversity. Based on the monitoring perspective (agency theory) and resource provision view (resource dependency theory), third essay investigates the role of independent directors’ specific attributes in the corporate propensity to R&D investment. The study documents a positive association between INDs’ moderate (median) tenure and the firm’s spending on R&D projects, but early and extended tenure is observed as being insignificant. INDs with a presence on three or fewer boards are observed to promote R&D investment. However, INDs sitting on more than three boards negatively affect the firm’s propensity to invest in R&D initiatives. Financially expert INDs are negatively associated with corporate R&D investments, suggesting that such directors may resist funding these projects beyond optimal risk level because of their expertise. These results suggest that INDs’ monitoring and advising competence improves as they spend time on the firm’s board, but that extended tenure is counterproductive as it impairs INDs’ impartiality. Furthermore, INDs’ capital (resources) accruing from connection to multiple boards is only beneficial for the firm’s strategic decisions if their monitoring role is not compromised because of their over-commitment (busyness). / Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST)