The role of agglomeration in digitalisation and productivity: an empirical examination of manufacturing SMEs in South Korea

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics.

Variable	Obs.	Mean	Std. dev.	Min.	Max.
Dependent variable
Digitalisation level	1707	0.000	1.000	−1.660	1.940
Productivity	1707	1.837	0.179	1.190	2.442
Independent variable
Enterprise level (Level 1)
Sales	1707	9.401	1.498	5.011	14.301
R&D organisation (dummy)	1707	0.528	0.499	0.000	1.000
Export (dummy)	1707	0.414	0.493	0.000	1.000
Service product (dummy)	1707	0.006	0.080	0.000	1.000
Employees specialising in digital technology	1707	2.071	2.814	0.000	30.000
Employees participating in job training	1707	26.643	104.566	0.000	2000.000
Effort of organisational innovation	1707	2.481	0.973	1.000	5.000
Municipal level (Level 2)
Specialisation	1707	3.235	5.116	0.023	73.555
Related variety	1707	0.860	0.199	0.000	1.411
Unrelated variety	1707	2.503	0.237	1.328	3.138
Urbanisation economies	1707	12.649	0.788	9.981	13.993
Suppliers in digital technology	1707	1.303	2.610	−4.605	4.913

Note: Number of municipalities = 175.

Figure 1. Spatial patterns of digitalisation level, productivity, and regional agglomeration.

Table 2. Factors associated with digitalisation level of manufacturing SMEs.

	Model 1 (All manufacturing SMEs)		Model 2 (Low digitalisation level manufacturing SMEs)		Model 3 (High digitalisation level manufacturing SMEs)
Enterprise level (Level 1)
Productivity	0.969***	(0.213)	0.310*	(0.183)	0.875***	(0.148)
Sales	0.122***	(0.024)	0.064***	(0.021)	0.005	(0.016)
R&D organisation (dummy)	0.119***	(0.045)	0.115***	(0.041)	0.016	(0.030)
Export (dummy)	0.085*	(0.045)	0.043	(0.042)	0.032	(0.028)
Service product (dummy)	−0.242	(0.244)	−0.185	(0.187)	−0.059	(0.208)
Employees specialising in digital technology	0.093***	(0.008)	0.041***	(0.015)	0.028***	(0.004)
Employees participating in job training	−0.000	(0.000)	−0.000	(0.000)	−0.000	(0.000)
Effort of organisational innovation	0.114***	(0.021)	0.017	(0.020)	0.073***	(0.013)
Municipal level (Level 2)
Specialisation	0.005	(0.004)	0.004	(0.004)	0.003	(0.002)
Related variety	0.246**	(0.121)	0.136	(0.109)	0.191**	(0.079)
Unrelated variety	−0.160	(0.098)	−0.049	(0.090)	−0.052	(0.063)
Urbanisation economies	0.032	(0.040)	−0.026	(0.036)	0.071***	(0.026)
Suppliers in digital technology	−0.004	(0.012)	0.018*	(0.010)	−0.025***	(0.008)
Cons.	−3.730***	(0.572)	−1.789***	(0.502)	−2.046***	(0.395)
Number of observations	1707		889		818
Groups	175		175		175
ICC	0.0021		0.0078		0.0000
AIC	4132.114		1407.789		671.7673
BIC	4219.194		1484.431		747.0771

Note: standard errors in parentheses.

* p < 0.1, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01.

Table 3. Factors associated with digitalisation level and productivity of manufacturing SMEs.

	Model 1 (All manufacturing SMEs)		Model 2 (Low digitalisation level manufacturing SMEs)		Model 3 (High digitalisation level manufacturing SMEs)
Equation for productivity
Digitalisation level	0.022***	(0.003)	0.014**	(0.006)	0.065***	(0.008)
Sales	0.086***	(0.002)	0.088***	(0.003)	0.083***	(0.003)
R&D organisation (dummy)	0.045***	(0.005)	0.052***	(0.007)	0.037***	(0.007)
Export (dummy)	0.009*	(0.005)	0.003	(0.008)	0.015**	(0.007)
Constant	0.999***	(0.017)	0.979***	(0.024)	0.988***	(0.024)
Equation for digitalisation level
Sales	0.202***	(0.016)	0.091***	(0.014)	0.074***	(0.012)
R&D organisation (dummy)	0.167***	(0.044)	0.133***	(0.039)	0.053*	(0.029)
Export (dummy)	0.094**	(0.045)	0.045	(0.042)	0.048*	(0.029)
Service product (dummy)	−0.303	(0.245)	−0.206	(0.187)	−0.050	(0.213)
Employees specialising in digital technology	0.101***	(0.008)	0.043***	(0.015)	0.034***	(0.004)
Employees participating in job training	0.000	(0.000)	−0.000	(0.000)	0.000	(0.000)
Effort of organisational innovation	0.117***	(0.021)	0.018	(0.020)	0.075***	(0.013)
Specialisation	0.006	(0.004)	0.004	(0.004)	0.003	(0.002)
Related variety	0.237**	(0.119)	0.148	(0.105)	0.150*	(0.080)
Unrelated variety	−0.188*	(0.097)	−0.068	(0.086)	−0.055	(0.064)
Urbanisation economies	0.030	(0.039)	−0.024	(0.034)	0.064**	(0.027)
Suppliers in digital technology	−0.004	(0.012)	0.017*	(0.010)	−0.024***	(0.008)
Constant	−2.646***	(0.516)	−1.478***	(0.444)	−0.994***	(0.363)
Number of observations	1707		889		818
R-squared
Equation for productivity	0.7276		0.6708		0.7078
Equation for digitalisation level	0.3450		0.1204		0.2986

Note: standard errors in parentheses.

* p < 0.1, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01.