RT Dissertation/Thesis
T1 Internationalization of Research & Development and Host-Country Patenting : The Dynamics of Innovation and Trans-Border R&D Flows between Developed and Emerging Countries
A1 Sommer,Daniel
WP 2021/12/15
AB The international business world has profoundly changed through globalization in the last years and decades. The cross-border exchange of products and people, as well as information, technology and capital has increased. Furthermore, companies are faced with an increasingly distributed knowledge base which means that one centralized Research & Development (R&D) base, usually at the headquarters is not sufficient and a company’s success rather depends on its ability to identify and occupy selected locations across the globe for R&D activities.
While the degree of R&D Internationalization of large multinational corporations (MNCs) has been increasing for the last decades, the group of source countries has remained small: the headquarters of the leading R&D conducting MNCs have been largely based in the US, Japan and several European countries (e.g. Germany, Switzerland) and R&D Internationalization had been remaining within this group. Since the beginning of this millennium, however, several emerging countries (e.g. China or India) have entered the stage and increasingly attracted foreign R&D investments as target countries. R&D has therefore not only increased in intensity, it has also increased in breadth, i.e. the degree of target country diversification has grown.
This dissertation addresses and is driven by the following overarching research question:
How can we capture even more precisely to what extent and in what fields MNCs conduct R&D abroad and how have the patterns changed in the time period 2000 – 2019?
Six major trends can be identified to answer the research question:
1. The share of R&D conducted abroad by MNCs in relation to their total R&D has increased in the last decades.
2. The number of target countries and their technological diversification degree has increased.
3. A select number of target countries, particularly ambitious emerging countries (China, India and partly some Eastern European countries) have significantly increased in relevance as a base for R&D activities.
4. Target countries attract foreign R&D in respective specific technological fields. Particularly the uprising emerging countries have built up competences in certain areas and participate in R&D in these fields on a relevant global degree.
5. A strong shift across the R&D conducting industries can be observed. Particularly high tech industries (e.g. pharma and biotech) and new technologies (IT, internet, software) have significantly increased in relevance compared to classic manufacturing industries and account for an increasing share of R&D activities across all industries.
6. Conducting R&D abroad generally pays off compared to purely domestic R&D, although there is indication that too much internationality can be detrimental as well.
K1 Innovation
K1  OECD
K1 F&E intensive Industrien
PP Hohenheim
PB Kommunikations-, Informations- und Medienzentrum der Universität Hohenheim
UL http://opus.uni-hohenheim.de/volltexte/2021/1966