Title: The innovation and productivity nexus in Malaysian manufacturing firms

Authors: Mazlina Shafi'i; Normaz Wana Ismail

Addresses: Malaysia Productivity Corporation, Lorong Produktiviti, Off Jalan Sultan, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia ' Institute of Agricultural and Food Policy Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

Abstract: The study uses the Economic Census Data of 2011 to investigate the innovation-productivity nexus at firm level of Malaysia manufacturing firms. The nexus of innovation and the other determinants of productivity were examined through the augmented Cobb-Douglas production function and the outcomes were as expected. The major findings of the study confirmed that innovation plays a significant role in enhancing productivity in the manufacturing sector. Other than innovation, capital intensity, labour quality, foreign direct investment, and export are among the factors that contribute to higher productivity.

Keywords: firm level data; innovation; exports; productivity; Malaysia; manufacturing industry; capital intensity; labour quality; foreign direct investment; FDI.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2015.072505

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2015 Vol.10 No.4, pp.362 - 374

Received: 06 Apr 2015
Accepted: 13 Aug 2015
Published online: 15 Oct 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article