Title: Evolutionary paths of R&D
Internationalization:
The Case of Taiwanese Transnational Corporations
Abstract: Internationalizing
R&D investment is a trend for innovative firms and many studies
have
examined this issue, but most of them report only on the knowledge of
R&D
internationalization of developed countries. There are only a few
studies
that have investigated R&D internationalization from developing
countries.
World Investment Report 2005 from UNCTAD [1] reveals that foreign
R&D
activities by transnational corporations (TNCs) from developing
countries
have grown quite fast. As such, further research on developing
countries
can enrich the literature of R&D internationalization. Based
on data from 75 of the top 1000 Taiwanese manufacturers, we examine
how these firms establish their overseas R&D centers and connect
with
global innovation networks over time by conducting both data searching
and
in-depth interviews. We categorize four paths of internationalizing
R&D
for Taiwanese firms and explore three types of technology strategies
through
in-depth interviews with top management. The three technology
strategies
are ‘technology driven strategy’, ‘cost driven strategy’, and ‘keeping
flexible
strategy’. By comparing three financial indexes, we find that firms
adopting
a keeping flexible strategy gained the highest average performance, and
those
firms focusing on cost performed the worst. The results provide
valuable
insights to the top management of firms in developing countries.
Authors: Louis
Y.
Y. Lu and T. M. Chen