Using multi-hub structures for international R&D: Organizational inertia and the challenges of implementation

Paola Criscuolo and Rajneesh Narula

No 25, Research Memorandum from Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT)

Abstract: Over the last decade or so, multinational enterprises (MNEs) have shifted from centralised hub structures to multi-hub structures. While these new structures provide greater potential for cross-fertilization of technologies and access to locationspecific competences, promoting effective knowledge transfer within an MNE – especially in their R&D activities - presents significant managerial challenges. Using evidence collected on the R&D activities of MNEs in the pharmaceutical sector, this paper analyses the challenges associated with complexities of promoting and integrating knowledge flows in the face of inter-unit geographical, organizational and technological distance. MNEs are faced with organizational inertia that hinders efficient lateral communication and inter-unit knowledge transfer, and the evidence suggests that while socialization mechanisms help overcoming some of these bottlenecks, there remain a number of obstacles in optimising knowledge flows in physically and technologically dispersed R&D facilities.

Keywords: economics of technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Using multi-hub structures for international R&D: Organisational inertia and the challenges of implementation (2007)
Working Paper: Using Multi-hub Structures for international R&D Organizational Inertia and the Challenges of Implementation (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unm:umamer:2005025

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