Foreign firms, Indian multinationals and spillovers in the Indian pharmaceutical industry

Purpose - Foreign firms and domestic multinationals have certain internal advantages which may spillover to domestic firms. However, due to heterogeneity across multinationals, it is not necessary that the effect of the spillovers generated by the foreign firm and that generated by the domestic multinational be similar. The purpose of this paper is to empirically find out if the spillovers generated are similar or different in nature. Design/methodology/approach - The study's results are based on a panel regression analysis of 578 firms in the Indian pharmaceutical industry from 1995‐2006. Fixed effects as well as the Levinsohn Petrin methodology are used to analyze the research question. Findings - The paper finds that there are differences in the characteristics of foreign firms and Indian multinationals. It also finds differences in the research and development (R&D) spillover effects from foreign firms and those from Indian multinationals. The knowledge or R&D spillover effect of foreign firms on domestic firms is found to be negative, which is interpreted as movement of labor to foreign firms. Indian multinationals seem to have no spillover effect on domestic firms in the Indian pharmaceutical industry. The study also finds that the presence of foreign firms in the Indian pharmaceutical industry has not had a productivity hampering effect on domestic firms. Finally, the study finds some evidence to believe that spillovers in the Indian pharmaceutical industry may vary with size of the domestic firm. Originality/value - There are very few papers in literature that empirically try to find similarity or differences between spillover effects due to foreign firms and those due to domestic multinationals. The study also tries to discern if these spillovers vary with respect to the size of the domestic firm.