University of Ulster NISRA BDR Programme

拟议的研究旨在提高我们对公司在北爱尔兰以外市场的参与度与其业绩之间的关系的理解。该项目的总体目标将是开发一个新的证据基础，以增加目前关于出口和进口的作用以及那些从事这种活动的公司在国家创新经济中的知识。我们的中心研究问题是：RQ1：公司/行业特征与国家创新公司的国际化(出口和进口)之间有什么关系？RQ2。我们能说什么广泛的(销售到或进口的市场数量)和密集(增加销售/购买)利润率对NI经济体整体出口增长的贡献？这一研究领域的现有文献表明，从事国际贸易(主要是出口)的公司往往比非出口同行更资本密集型、更具创新性、支付更高的工资和更高的生产率。从事跨境贸易和国家创新出口的国家创新企业已经证明了这一点。我们的其他贡献，尤其是那些参与10倍经济政策制定的人，将是部门特征(包括出口强度、生产率等)对这些部门的公司的出口倾向和强度的影响。我们还打算将分析扩展到检验进口行为的影响，这在以前的研究中受到的关注较少。通过这一BDR倡议，我们建议提供对2014-2020年期间按市场、部门和地理划分的出口(和进口)表现的非常详细的描述性分析，并将其与这些外部市场和工业部门的经济表现联系起来。接下来，我们将研究企业层面的出口战略，以解释我们在时间序列中看到的更大的贸易模式。这将为检验出口促进和出口途径提供一些证据，这些方法一直在政策领域得到遵循。第二阶段的分析旨在分析业务特征和出口之间的关系，并分别确定业务表现是否存在出口溢价(或进口溢价)，将通过计量经济学分析进行，使用文献中的标准技术。项目的交付成果将包括一份主要报告，其中包含对出口商和非出口商以及同样对进口商和非进口商(按规模、详细部门、优先部门和地理位置)的描述性分析，以及旨在分析业务和业绩特征之间的统计关系的计量分析，以及各种国际化状况变量，即出口、进口、出口强度和广泛的出口市场取向。这份主要报告将通过提供对NI出口商基础的了解，帮助支持经济部(DFE)的研究重点，特别是在10倍经济方面。它将使人们能够建立出口公司的最新概况，了解哪些特征与出口最相关，这是否会随着广阔的市场目的地和出口强度的变化而变化。它还将能够评估出口对企业业绩的影响，从而帮助支持这一领域的政策制定。最后，通过包括对进口商的分析，它将提供对NI商业人口国际化的更全面的了解。

The proposed research aims to improve our understanding of the relationships between firms' engagement in markets external to Northern Ireland (NI) and their performance. The overall aim of the project would be to develop a new evidence base which adds to current knowledge about the role of exporting and importing, and those firms engaged in such activities, within the NI economy.Our central research questions are:RQ1: What relationship is there between firm/sector characteristics and internationalisation (both exporting and importing) for NI firms? RQ2. What can we say about the contributions of extensive (numbers of market sold to or imported from) and intensive (increasing sales/purchases) margins to overall export growth for the NI economy?The existing literature in this research field shows how firms engaged in international trade (in the main exporting) tend to be more capital intensive, more innovative, pay higher wages and are more productive than their non-exporting peers. Evidence for this has been shown for NI firms engaged in cross-border trade and for NI exports. Our additional contribution, and of particular interest to those engaged in the 10X Economy policy development, would be the effect of sectoral characteristics (including export intensity, productivity, etc) on the propensity and intensity of exporting by firms in those sectors. We also aim to extend the analysis to examine the effect of importing behaviour, which has received less focus in previous research.Through this BDR initiative we propose to offer both a very detailed descriptive analysis of export (and import) performance - by market, by sector and by geography - over the 2014-2020 period as well as relating this to economic performance in those external markets and industrial sectors. We will follow this by looking at export strategies at the firm level in order to explain the larger trade patterns that we are seeing in the time series. This will offer some evidence to test out the export promotion and 'pathway to exporting' approaches that have been followed in policy spheres. The second stage of the analysis, which seeks to analyse the relationship between business characteristics and exporting, and separately identify whether there is an export premia (or import premia) on business performance, will be undertaken via econometric analysis, using standard techniques from the literature.The project's deliverables will include a main report containing both a descriptive analysis of exporters and non-exporters and likewise, importers and non-importers (by size, detailed sector, priority sector and geography), along with econometric analysis which seeks to analyse the statistical relationship between business and performance characteristics and the various internationalisation status variables i.e. exporting, importing, export intensity, broad export market orientation. This main report will help support the Department for the Economy (DfE) in their research priorities, specifically in terms of the 10X Economy, by providing an understanding of NI's exporter base. It will enable an up-to-date profile of exporting firms to be established in terms of which characteristics are most associated with exporting and whether this changes depending on the broad market destination, and in terms of the intensity of exporting. It will also enable an assessment of the impact of exporting on business performance, thereby helping to support policy development in this area. Finally, by including analysis of importers, it will provide a more complete understanding of the internationalisation of NI's business population.