Home base-compensating R&D: Indicators, public policy, and ramifications for multinational firms

Mark Lehrer, Kazuhiro Asakawa and Michael Behnam

Journal of International Management, 2011, vol. 17, issue 1, 42-53

Abstract: The situation in which a multinational firm compensates for comparative weakness in home-country R&D by locating vital R&D activities in foreign countries with a stronger R&D base has generally been considered a fairly marginal phenomenon. Yet home base-compensating R&D by MNCs is more prevalent and more important in its effects than generally assumed. Given intensifying competition among nations for R&D investment by MNCs, home base-compensating R&D may help stimulate R&D reform in the home country, as illustrated with the example of German biotechnology. The probability that home base-compensating R&D can stimulate R&D reform in the firm's home country is highest when practiced by "high-profile players" in sectors that are science-based and that are either strategic (inter-industry economic and knowledge spillovers), feature above-average growth, and/or are of high political importance. To the extent that home base-compensating R&D by MNCs can potentially encourage policy reforms in their home country, this adds a new level of complexity to discussions about the role of corporations in influencing public policy as a component of their corporate social responsibility.

Keywords: Home; base-compensating; R&D; Multinational; corporations; National; systems; of; innovation; R&D; reform; Public; policy; Germany; Biotechnology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S107542531000061X
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:intman:v:17:y:2011:i:1:p:42-53

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/601266/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 601266/bibliographic

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Management is currently edited by M. Kotabe

More articles in Journal of International Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().