The main purpose of this paper is to investigate, in comparison to the traditional tangible production factors such as physical capital, to what extent do intangible production factors such as human and innovation capital contribute to the firm's performance of a KIBS sub-sector in Taiwan-IC design industry by proposing an knowledge production function (KPF) which includes tangible production factors and intangible production factors. Drawing upon data from 68 Taiwan IC design firms during 1993-2005, the present paper is primarily concerned with modeling the factors influencing firm performance. Empirical results demonstrate that human capital is the most important factor contributing to firm performance, followed by patent. But physical capital does not significantly influence firm performance.
Relation:
Journal of Harbin Institute of Technology (New Series) Volume 15, Issue SUPPL., April 2008, Pages 280-284
