EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Global technology development by colocating R&D and manufacturing: the case of Swedish manufacturing MNEs

Inge Ivarsson, Claes Alvstam and Jan-Erik Vahlne

Industrial and Corporate Change, 2017, vol. 26, issue 1, 149-168

Abstract: In this study we analyze the role of colocation between research and development (R&D) and manufacturing for global technology development by multinational enterprises (MNEs). The extant literature suggests that the main strategic role of colocated R&D units is to locally adapt existing products and processes. However, data from 146 foreign R&D units of Sweden’s 17 largest manufacturing MNEs in 2013 show that they instead mainly develop new technology, not only for the local and regional markets, but to a large extent for the global market. A likely explanation is that colocation positively contributes to joint problem-solving and transfer of tacit knowledge between production and R&D personnel, all of which is necessary in new product development, especially in industries characterized by complex products and systems and rapid technological change. A theoretical implication is that depending on industry characteristics, internal cross-functional linkages between R&D and manufacturing can be more critical than external supply- and demand-side factors when it comes to influence where R&D units are located globally.

Keywords: O32; O33; R30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/icc/dtw018 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:oup:indcch:v:26:y:2017:i:1:p:149-168.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Industrial and Corporate Change is currently edited by Josef Chytry

More articles in Industrial and Corporate Change from Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:26:y:2017:i:1:p:149-168.