Changing perspectives on the internationalization of R&D and innovation by multinational enterprises: a review of the literature

Internationalization of R&D and innovation by Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) has undergone a gradual and comprehensive change in perspective over the past 50 years. From sporadic works in the late 1950s and in the 1960s, it became a systematically analysed topic in the 1970s, starting with pioneering reports and “foundation texts”. Our review unfolds the theoretical and empirical evolution of the literature from dyadic interpretations of centralization versus decentralization of R&D by MNEs to more comprehensive frameworks, wherein established MNEs from Advanced Economies still play a pivotal role, but new players and places also emerge in the global generation and diffusion of knowledge. Hence views of R&D internationalization increasingly rely on concepts, ideas and methods from IB and other related disciplines such as industrial organization, international economics and economic geography. Two main findings are highlighted. First, scholarly research pays an increasing attention to the network-like characteristics of international R&D activities. Second, different streams of literature have emphasized the role of location- specific factors in R&D internationalization. The increasing emphasis on these aspects has created new research opportunities in some key areas, including inter alia: cross-border knowledge sourcing strategies, changes in the geography of R&D and innovation, and the international fragmentation of production and R&D activities

Robot adoption and FDI driven transformation in the automotive industry

This paper explores the relationship between inward foreign direct investments and the adoption of industrial robots, across different segments of the automotive value chain. Using the International Federation of Robotics and FDI Market datasets at a fine level of disaggregation of the automotive sector, we investigate the extent to which FDIs are related to the operational stock of industrial robots in 34 countries over the period 2005-2014. We find distinct patterns linking FDIs and robot adoption for different groups of countries and for different segments of the automotive value chain, that, is assembling and components production. With some relevant exceptions, FDIs are found to be highly correlated with robot adoption in the assembling segment across major leading countries. However, this correlation becomes weak for components production. To explain this differential role of FDIs in robot adoption, we formulate hypotheses around the country-specific drivers of robotisation for the components segment by pointing to the role of domestic ecosystems of suppliers and industrial policy as drivers of technology absorption and diffusion

Supply chain contagion and the role of industrial policy

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a major disruption in global value chains (GVCs) that pushed the global economy into a recession that promises to be worse than the 2008 crisis. This article illustrates the mechanisms through which the COVID-19 pandemic affected GVCs in the context of a changing configuration of the global economy. In particular, it is argued that GVCs became the main transmission channels of “economic contagion”. Finally, we posit that the pandemic provides an opportunity to revive the role of industrial policy as to govern the landslides of a world economy constantly pressured by globalization and deglobalization forces

Exports and Productivity: Comparable Evidence for 14 Countries

We use comparable micro level panel data for 14 countries and a set of identically specified empirical models to investigate the relationship between exports and productivity. Our overall results are in line with the big picture that is by now familiar from the literature: Exporters are more productive than non-exporters when observed and unobserved heterogeneity are controlled for, and these exporter productivity premia tend to increase with the share of exports in total sales; there is strong evidence in favour of self-selection of more productive firms into export markets, but nearly no evidence in favour of the learning-by-exporting hypothesis. We document that the exporter premia differ considerably across countries in identically specified empirical models. In a meta-analysis of our results we find that countries that are more open and have more effective government report higher productivity premia. However, the level of development per se does not appear to be an explanation for the observed cross-country differences.exports; productivity; micro data; international comparison

Districts, multinationals and global/digital networks

This paper reflects on what remains of Becattini’s utopia in the new context of a globalized and digital economy. Can one still foresee a global world populated with local societies able to produce value by following their own inspirations and chorally participating in a world-wide division of cognitive labor? It is suggested that the interpretive value of Becattini’s theorizing remains, to the extent that one moves away from the consideration of the classical district model, and adopts his more general way of thinking about the economy, which is only exemplified by the historical circumstance of industrial districts. His view may well apply to a variety of circumstances, not only to industrial districts and it is flexible enough to encompass economic change under different environmental conditions

Changing perspectives on the internationalization of R&D and innovation by multinational enterprises: a review of the literature

Internationalization of R&D and innovation by Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) has undergone a gradual and comprehensive change in perspective over the past 50 years. From sporadic works in the late 1950s and in the 1960s, it became a systematically analysed topic in the 1970s, starting with pioneering reports and “foundation texts”. Our review unfolds the theoretical and empirical evolution of the literature from dyadic interpretations of centralization versus decentralization of R&D by MNEs to more comprehensive frameworks, wherein established MNEs from Advanced Economies still play a pivotal role, but new players and places also emerge in the global generation and diffusion of knowledge. Hence views of R&D internationalization increasingly rely on concepts, ideas and methods from IB and other related disciplines such as industrial organization, international economics and economic geography. Two main findings are highlighted. First, scholarly research pays an increasing attention to the network-like characteristics of international R&D activities. Second, different streams of literature have emphasized the role of location- specific factors in R&D internationalization. The increasing emphasis on these aspects has created new research opportunities in some key areas, including inter alia: cross-border knowledge sourcing strategies, changes in the geography of R&D and innovation, and the international fragmentation of production and R&D activities

"Indigenising English": Linguistic Categories in Albert Wendt's "Captain Full"

This paper is centred on an accurate analysis of the linguistic structures of Pidgin English in its South Pacific variant and of the processes of stylisation, the idiolect the writer creates through a manipulation of SPPE. The paper gives coherent evidence of the features of stylised pidgin integrated with the juxtaposition of non-standard to standard English in Wendt's idiolect, diplaying a high frequency and cadenced use of words endowed with polysemantic and multifunctional properties