The Impact of Innovation Activities on Firm Efficiency: Data Envelopment Analysis

This study aims to investigate the impact of innovation on firm efficiency. Panel data of fourteen finance companies and nine technology companies from 2011 to 2019 on the Vietnam Stock Exchange Market is derived from audited financial statements, annual reports, and other crucial reports that are provided by Vietstock; macroeconomic variables are collected from the World Bank Database. A two-stage approach is used. First, use of the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology to measure firm efficiency. Second, use of the Pooled ordinary least squares, the Fixed effects model, and the Random effects model to investigate the impact of innovation on firm efficiency. Furthermore, the Generalized Method of Moments and the Tobit model are used to validate the impact of innovation on firm efficiency, and the t-test is used to confirm the difference in efficiency with and without the impact of innovation between two industries. The results show that there is a significant impact of innovation on efficiency, and innovation plays a more important in increasing the efficiency of the finance industry than the technology industry. Moreover, the relation between age and efficiency is like the U-shaped, and between size and efficiency is like the inverted U-shaped, whereas efficiency is not associated with inflation.