International Growth as Integration of R&D Activities. Evidence from Large Multinational Companies

Corporate R&D internationalization has been analyzed predominantly in terms of the geographic diversification of multinational companies' research laboratories, and only to a lesser extent as a process involving the development of resources and capabilities within organizations and as a means of favoring international integration. This paper analyzes the relation between these two dimensions of internationalization, both of which are relevant for study of the multinational growth of R&D activities. Examination of the literature together with in-depth case reports of two large multinational clusters provides evidence in support of the following statements: · R&D internationalization can be seen as a "gradual" process that takes shape through the formation of specific resources and capabilities, which are developed within individual organizations but are designed to achieve integration both with foreign organizational units of the multinational cluster itself and also with other national innovation systems; · Multinational R&D follows a strategy that is characterized by a strong inter-relation between the formation of foreign research activities and the character of the integration process; · Corporate strategies may correspond to highly diverse and at times even contrasting R&D internationalization models, as shown by the emblematic case analyses presented here. The presence of these different models limits the scope of any general interpretation of the determinants and implications of R&D internationalization.-

Competence Attrition: A linguistic theory of the effects of external competence acquisition for organizations

What happens to old competences in organizations when new competences are acquired? In this paper, we propose a competence attrition theory to explain the effects of acquiring new competences on previously acquired ones. While the presumed positive role of available competences for the acquisition of new competences has been the subject of extensive research, the potentially negative effect of the acquisition of external competences on the availability and use of existing competences has not been sufficiently theorized. We aim to do so by extending existing learning and absorptive capacity theories with insights from linguistics on competence attrition. Specifically, informed by parallel patterns in language acquisition and attrition, we develop a set of focused propositions on competence acquisition and attrition in organizations. We end the paper by discussing the implications of our theorizing for existing theory and research

The impact of attitudes towards influencers amongst millennial fashion buyers

The aim of this paper is to identify influencers and the way they affect the behavior of millennial buyers in the process of consuming fashion goods. The paper examines the literature on opinion leaders, ranging from the origins of the concept to its developments within the context of the Internet. The shift from influential to influencer and the different types of influencer are examined and certain hypotheses regarding the role of influencers (including all the influential players) regarding fashion-buying millennials are presented. The paper presents the results of qualitative and quantitative empirical research based on focus groups and in-depth interviews with 22 university students. Findings from this research and their implications regarding the different stages of the millennial buying process are discussed