Intellectual property regimes and knowledge governance in MNEs: Expatriate staffing and R&D-manufacturing colocation

Jong Min Lee

International Business Review, 2025, vol. 34, issue 1

Abstract: Expatriates can provide multinational enterprises (MNEs) with an effective knowledge governance mechanism to buffer institutional deficiencies or maximize institutional benefits associated with varying intellectual property (IP) regimes. Building on the implications of both transaction cost minimization and value maximization through expatriate utilization, this study explores how MNEs adjust their use of expatriates in manufacturing subsidiaries contingent on host country IP regimes. The study also examines how R&D-manufacturing colocation and the parent firm’s technological competence moderate the relationship between host country IP regimes and expatriate utilization. Using a global dataset of South Korean MNEs, this paper finds support for a U-curve relationship between the strength of host country IP regimes and the MNE’s expatriate staffing levels in manufacturing subsidiaries. The results also reveal that the U-shape relationship is strengthened by R&D-manufacturing colocation but weakened by the parent firm’s R&D intensity. These findings provide important implications for research and practice pertaining to MNE management in different IP regimes in general and expatriate utilization in particular.

Keywords: Intellectual property regimes; Expatriate staffing; Multinational enterprises; R&D and manufacturing colocation; Multilevel analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593124000714
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:iburev:v:34:y:2025:i:1:s0969593124000714

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/133/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... me/133/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2024.102324

Access Statistics for this article

International Business Review is currently edited by P. Ghauri

More articles in International Business Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().