Summary and conclusions

Abstract

A new phenomenon can be observed even in large, industrialized countries during recent years. A growing number of firms started spending mounting sums of money for R&D in foreign countries but not at their headquarters. This trend has alarmed politicians, and it has caused technology managers to review their strategies, particularly, if these were primarily based on the centralized generation of new knowledge. The trend reflects an important facet of growing internationalization. This trend is also represented by the employment of people of many nationalities in real or virtual project teams or in the participation of firms in international R&D cooperations. Disregarding such aspects, which cause management problems of their own, we concentrate on a situation where a firm operates not only one or many laboratories in one country, but also runs laboratories in nations which are considered foreign from the perspective of its headquarters. Then, a first question arises: What explains this phenomenon of internationalization of R&D laboratories?