It reveals that developments in the world economy and increased competition between countries have highlighted some other factors related to the economic growth. In this context, the determinants of economic growth include technological innovation due to the increasing global competition, and research and development (R&D) activities which are considered as the driving force of economic growth in the post-1980 period. The study investigates the effect of R&D spending, such as R&D expenditures (million dollars), the total number of researchers in the field (per 1000 000 people), as well as total factor productivity (TFP) annual reports on total factor productivity and economic growth in newly industrialized countries (South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Turkey) using panel data analysis over the period 1996-2019. The source of total factor productivity data come from PWT (2020) and other data from World Bank (2020a, 2020b, 2020c, 2020d). R&D spending indicator is measured using GDP data and the ratio of R&D expenditures to GDP. The study used the data of the years over 1996-2019 as the necessary data is available for that period. The 2008 global economic crisis, which took place during the analysis period, was also included in the analysis with the dummy variable. Correlation analysis showed positive correlations between R&D expenditures and the number of researchers working in the field of R&D in NIC countries and economic growth and total factor productivity. It was also observed that the relationship between the number of researchers working in the field of R&D and economic growth and overall factor productivity is greater than R&D expenditures. According to the research findings, it is suggested that R&D expenditures and the large number of researchers working in the field of R&D will have a positive impact on economic growth and overall factor productivity, but the nature of these data is as important as the size.