Unbundling R&D and Manufacturing: Postindustrial Myth or Economic Reality?

Mikko Ketokivi and Jyrki Ali‐Yrkkö

Review of Policy Research, 2009, vol. 26, issue 1‐2, 35-54

Abstract: Understanding determinants of business location decisions is important from the point of view of economic policy. While the determinants of manufacturing and R&D location have been extensively covered in the literature, in this article we examine a largely neglected question: Under what conditions do manufacturing and R&D have to be physically colocated, that is, when is unbundling the two impossible? In a sample of 241 Finnish industrial firms, we find that unbundling R&D and manufacturing is possible for some companies but indeed a postindustrial myth of sorts for many others. The need for colocation correlates with knowledge intensity of activities: product complexity, process complexity, and industry rate of change, but interestingly enough, not with the size of the firm's R&D budget.

Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-1338.2008.00368.x

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:bla:revpol:v:26:y:2009:i:1-2:p:35-54

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.wiley.com/bw/subs.asp?ref=1541-132x

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Policy Research is currently edited by Christopher Gore

More articles in Review of Policy Research from Policy Studies Organization Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().