The complementarity effect of exporting, importing and R&D on the productivity of Ukrainian MNEs

After two decades of research on Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises (EMNE), the debate still concerns antecedents and strategies their foreign expansion. However, much less has been said effects international participation productivity. Building insights from Resource-Based View firm agency theory, we develop hypotheses presence complementarities among export, import R&D impact Our empirical analyses a panel 23,000 time-year observations Ukrainian MNEs over period 2000–2006, confirm that: (i) EMNEs benefit stemming assimilation integration knowledge external sources (import export) with internal (own investment); (ii) effect is more pronounced for private-owned enterprises (POEs) rather than state-owned (SOEs), (iii) especially when they trade partners in/from advanced markets.