IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unm/umamer/2004008.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Foreign direct investment through acquisitions and implications for technological upgrading: Case evidence from Tanzania

Author

Listed:
  • Portelli, Brian
  • Narula, Rajneesh

    (MERIT)

Abstract

Using a case-study approach, this study examines the role of privatisation on the industrial landscape of Tanzania. We examine the impact of FDI through acquisitions on technology transfer within the acquired firm as well as the development of linkages to other firms based in the host country. Our results suggest that technological upgrading has occurred following FDI, the intensity of which reflects the type of firm-specific assets of parent MNE, as well as the pre-acquisition state of these industrial activities. Improved backward linkages are also evident with local economic agents, but their type and extent – reflecting Tanzania’s comparative advantage in the primary sector - confirm that capabilities both within the acquired firms and also in the industrial base of the host country greatly influence the magnitude and intensity of technological upgrading. ‘Narrower’ technology gaps between the MNE affiliate and the domestic sector are more likely to result in backward linkages and determine the type of technological content of inputs sourced locally rather than within the MNE.

Suggested Citation

  • Portelli, Brian & Narula, Rajneesh, 2004. "Foreign direct investment through acquisitions and implications for technological upgrading: Case evidence from Tanzania," Research Memorandum 008, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    • Handle: RePEc:unm:umamer:2004008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/rmpdf/2004/rm2004-008.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Otieno Osoro & Patrick Vermeulen & Joris Knoben & Godius Kahyarara, 2016. "Effect of knowledge sources on firm-level innovation in Tanzania," Innovation and Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 259-280, July.
    2. Osoro, Otieno & Kirama, Stephen & Knoben, Joris & Vermeulen, P.A.M., 2015. "Factors Affecting Engagement and Commercialization of Innovation Activities of Firms in Tanzania," Other publications TiSEM 3f542727-8927-424a-8579-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. Elisa Giuliani & Chiara Macchi, 2014. "Multinational corporations’ economic and human rights impacts on developing countries: a review and research agenda," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 38(2), pages 479-517.
    4. Lall, Sanjaya & Narula, Rajneesh, 2004. "FDI and its role in economic development: Do we need a new agenda?," Research Memorandum 019, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    5. Narula, Rajneesh & Portelli, Brian, 2004. "Foreign direct investment and economic development: Opportunities and limitations from a developing country perspective," Research Memorandum 009, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic development an growth ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unm:umamer:2004008. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Leonne Portz (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/meritnl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.