Multinational Enterprises Innovative Strategies And Systems Of Innovation

This volume explores the extent to which multinational enterprises (MNEs) are decentralizing the creation of new technological capabilities to various countries. The book contends that technological strategies and innovation activities undertaken by firms are a critical part of the increasing internationalization of economic activity and that MNEs are the main actors for these changes. It goes on to explain that MNEs must now effectively manage new technological assets in order to cope with the extensive changes in the nature of international competition.

The crucial actors of a global knowledge-based economy are multinational enterprises (MNEs). MNEs depend on the embeddedness in an institutional framework; their competitive advantage depends on the cross-border utilisation of regional and national capabilities. The innovativeness of a company is therefore based also on regional innovation systems. Multinational Enterprises and Innovation contributes to a better understanding of the interconnectedness between organisational and regional learning. On the basis of case studies in Germany and France, this volume investigates how MNEs cope with technical, economic and institutional uncertainties by drawing upon the complementary strengths of organisational and regional networks in national and European contexts. The book links two theoretical debates which are currently still largely disconnected -- the debate on learning processes in MNEs and the debate on the regional bases of innovativeness and competitiveness -- answering the question of how the internationalisation of R&D is reconciled with regional competences.

'The world economy is subject to a rapidly increasing globalization, and multinational enterprises are their major driving force. This brand new book on multinationals and economic geography by two world leading economic geographers is a landmark that provides an integrated and dynamic perspective on the economic geography of the multinational enterprise. To fully understand this process of globalization, the book explains forcefully and persuasively that one needs a dynamic perspective on multinational enterprises that brings together disparate literatures on economic geography, knowledge and innovation, global network cities, and international business and management. Embedding it in modern theory of innovation and geography, the book provides not only a state-of-the-art of theories and empirics on the location of multinationals, but goes far beyond that. This book is an absolute "must-read" for any scholar and any student that is interested in multinationals and their location.' – Ron Boschma, Utrecht University, The Netherlands and Lund University, Sweden 'Despite often playing second fiddle to clusters in the economic geography literature, multinationals are fundamental drivers of economic development. As generators and diffusers of knowledge they have played an essential role in shaping the new world economic order. No book captures this better than Simona Iammarino and Philip McCann's Multinationals and Economic Geography, a must read for anyone eager to fully understand the new economic geography of globalisation.' – Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, London School of Economics, UK After more than fifty years of systematic research on multinational enterprises (MNEs) what is apparent is that there is, as yet, no unified or dominant theory of the MNE. The objective of this book is to bring into focus one particular dimension of MNE behaviour and activity that has been relatively under-researched – namely the geography of the multinational enterprise – as understood through the lens of innovation and technological change. The authors clearly demonstrate that geography is becoming increasingly important for MNEs and, in turn, MNEs are becoming progressively more important for economic geography. The pivot on which this vital relationship turns is the creation, diffusion and management of new knowledge. This unique book will prove a fascinating read for academics, students and researchers across a broad range of areas including geography, economic geography, regional science, international business and management, innovation studies, economic development. Professionals such as corporate managers and policymakers in these fields would also find this book to be of great interest.

The book assumes an original place in the literature. . . Castellani and Zanfei show that the economic impact of MNEs on innovation and productivity depends on evolutionary features of firms and industries, particularly on the heterogeneity of firm strategies and behaviours. . . this volume contains high-quality, well-written research. . . Simona Iammarino, Research Policy . . . this book offers the reader a well-written and very comprehensive analysis on the link between innovation and internalization which leads to insights into firm heterogeneity. The authors have succeeded in synthesizing the vast body of theoretical and empirical research and given an up-to-date overview of the various issues involved. This is then complemented with their own research findings. . . The book will undoubtedly enrich the debate on the behavior and impact of MNEs. Yama Temouri, Journal of International Business Studies Davide Castellani and Antonello Zanfei, two well-known Italian economists, have brought forth an excellent new book. . . I think this book will serve as a starting-point for many interesting studies, both because of its findings and because of its empirical and theoretical rigour. . . the book lays an excellent and empirically well founded foundation that opens the way for what we need most in research on the international innovatory activities and R&D configurations of MNCs: intrafirm data and the study of intrafirm processes, configurations and specific interactions with the host country environment. The book to me is an important step in moving innovation research forward in this direction. . . I am sure that this book will serve as a thought-provoking starting point for many future studies on firms international innovatory activities and therefore recommend it without any reservation. Marcus M. Keupp, Creativity and Innovation Management Castellani and Zanfei have developed an original and comprehensive analysis of the role of multinational firms in the transfer, creation and diffusion of technology. By developing their view of the multinationals as double network institutions , the authors provide new insights on a variety of key issues at the frontier of economics of international production and innovation. This book is thought-provoking, incisive and topical, and should be required reading for both economists and policymakers alike. Rajneesh Narula, University of Reading, UK Castellani and Zanfei present an in-depth theoretical and empirical analysis of the key issues underpinning the relationship between innovation and multinationality. This book is strongly-recommended reading for any researcher working on innovation or multinationality or the interface between the two. Grazia Ietto-Gillies, London South Bank University, UK This book gets to the root of how and why multinational firms differ in the cross-border creation, transfer and diffusion of technology, and provides fresh evidence on the effects that these differences have on productivity and innovation in the economic systems in which they are active. Davide Castellani and Antonello Zanfei consider multinationals as heterogeneous institutions that combine internal networks of subsidiaries with external networks of collaborative linkages, to bridge different economic and innovation systems. They examine heterogeneity in productivity and innovative behaviour between multinational and national firms, as well as across and within multinationals. The authors argue that not every foreign firm is a good source of externality, and not every domestic firm is equally well placed to benefit from multinationals. It is shown that spillovers from multinationals differ according to the technological profiles, embeddedness and linkage creation of both foreign and domestic firms active in local markets. The book supports this view with empirical evidence based on illustrative case studies, and on econometric analysis using extensive firm-level datasets on multinati

'This wonderful volume brings together contributions mainly from the innovation literature, whose findings are in a sense quite familiar, but which in this collection are juxtaposed in such a way as to highlight their common institutional underpinnings. This is very much due to the efforts of the editor, whose insightful introduction and editorial vision brings out several interesting and emerging themes from this collection of papers. I think this volume breaks new ground in highlighting the embeddedness of MNE subsidiaries in multiple contexts, and it will be of considerable interest to scholars engaged with institutional analysis. However, I also believe that researchers interested in regional embeddedness, the geography of innovation, and knowledge management will find new angles to their work in this collected volume.' – Sarianna M. Lundan, University of Bremen, Germany Multinational companies are crucial actors in a global knowledge-based economy, combining the advantages of global and locally coordinated production and innovation strategies with specific regional and national factors. This book questions how MNCs can best exploit institutionally embedded knowledge, explores the utilization of external institutionally embedded knowledge in corporate innovation processes, and addresses the challenges of embeddedness. The expert contributors draw on managerial, economic, geographic and sociological perspectives to explore the essential roles of regional and national knowledge infrastructures and the cultural and political environment of MNCs. They build upon, update, and extend the discussion on the regional and national embeddedness of MNCs with new country case studies and comparative analyses, focussing on the relationship between innovation in companies and regional studies. Significantly, the book also establishes a link between two important debates that have hitherto been largely disconnected: Regional studies and international business studies separately address issues that fall within the scope of the book, but do not provide an integrated analysis of the embeddedness of MNCs. This pathbreaking book goes some way to fill this gap in the literature and as such, will prove invaluable to academics, R&D managers, regional policy makers and students with an interest in international business, business economics, regional studies and organization studies.

Focuses on the changing roles and challenges of innovation and growth policy, and the strategies and measures that are critical in a globalizing world. This title provides guidance for innovation policy strategy formulations and design of innovation policy measures.

This book contributes to ongoing policy discussions on the internationalisation of innovation. Foreign-owned enterprises account for a rising share of national innovation expenditures and have become key actors in the national innovation systems of almost all OECD countries. Their new roles give rise to both hopes and concerns. The author examines the innovative activities of foreign-owned enterprises in Austria, a country with a huge share of overseas R&D investment. Empirical analysis reveals that foreign-owned enterprises exhibit a superior innovation performance compared to domestically owned enterprises. The performance differences, however, can be explained by factors such as firm size, sectoral affiliation, and export intensity, rather than by the ownership status. With respect to policy, the results neither confirm fears that foreign ownership could lead to an erosion of innovative activity in the host country, nor do they provide arguments for specific incentives to attract foreign-owned enterprises. Innovation policy should instead try to foster innovative capabilities of both foreign-owned and domestically owned enterprises.

The aim of this book is to contribute to a better understanding of those intermediate countries with specific reference to two relevant international areas; those countries of southern Europe whose dynamic is very much influenced by the phases of European construction, and in countries of Latin America where the opening up process has changed the traditional role played by multinational corporations.