Impact of incoming FDI on expenditure on R&D enterprises operating in Poland in 2010–2016

Abstract

Over the past decades, incoming foreign direct investment (FDI) has become an important element of the Polish economy. Their impact on companies operating in Poland has been analyzed in many respects, but relatively little attention has been paid to the relationship between FDI and expenditure on research and development (R&D). Research carried out in the past on this phenomenon in developing countries has shown that enterprises being the target of FDI are more competitive than others operating on a given market and may lead to their collapse and a reduction in the total volume of R&D in a given economy. There are studies that point to the truth of this dependence in Poland in the period after the market transformation, although it would be interesting to investigate whether this phenomenon is still taking place thirty years after the introduction of the free market. The aim of the article is to answer the question whether in the years 2010–2016 among the enterprises operating in Poland there was a positive or negative relationship between incoming FDI and expenditure on R&D. After analyzing the statistical data available, among others at the NBP, the Central Statistical Office and the Local Data Bank, as well as the creation of an econometric model, the authors prove that with the increase of incoming FDI the total volume of R&D expenditure also increases. The reason for the reversal of the previously described dependence may be the change in the level of competitiveness of Polish enterprises and their ability to absorb innovations that have occurred since the previous such type of research.