the role of non economic endowments introduction to the special section on what we know and what we should know about international knowledge sourcing recent developments in the pattern of international knowledge sourcing have highlighted a new international division of labor in knowledge production which now is affecting emerging as well as advanced countries the source of this division of labor has been identified as residing in the changing economic endowments of these countries we extend this by suggesting that the new international allocation of knowledge related activities is related strongly to a country s non economic endowments our arguments provide context to the papers in this special section

new perspectives on the innovation strategies of multinational enterprises lessons for technology policy in europe abstract the aim of this contribution is to learn more about changes in the innovation strategies of large multinational corporations whereby one focus is on internationalization aspects as sources for our analyses we reviewed the main empirical studies and gathered information and insights from 21 corporations our results show firstly that the internationalization of research and technology is still characterized by triadization involving companies from the us the european union and japan secondly qualitative motives are increasingly driving r d location decisions like learning from technological excellence and lead markets and dynamic interactions within the value chain thirdly the process of internationalization in research and technology has been accompanied by an increasingly selective focus on a very few locations and the concentration of innovation activities on worldwide centers of excellence we conclude that these changes in the innovation strategies of large multinational companies put several topics on the agenda for technology policy in europe 1 a stronger focus on extra european collaboration and mobility 2 strengthening the attractiveness of the european union to foreign r d investment and 3 the absorptive capacities of r d organizations in europe 4 a stronger integration of different policy areas and of indirect policy measures 5 as well as the establishment of a transparent and global framework for policy coordination and priority setting worldwide

patterns of internationalisation of corporate technology location vs home country advantages given the trends towards increasing globalisation of markets and of production the globalisation of technology remains a subject of considerable interest to analysts and policy makers in the 1990s this paper provides some new empirical observations for debate and discussion on the patterns of technological activities of large firms outside their home countries it is based on a systematic analysis of the us patenting activities of 220 of the most internationalised firms in terms of their technology in the 1990s although firms are active outside their home countries in the high technology fields such as computers pharmaceuticals telecommunications image and sound and materials quite a sizeable proportion of their foreign activities are concerned with process and machinery technologies moreover a comparison of the technological advantage of the company at home and the advantage of the location shows that in a large majority of cases firms tend to locate their technology abroad in their core areas where they are strong at home these results suggest that adapting products and processes and materials to suit foreign markets and providing technical support to off shore manufacturing plants remain major factors underlying the internationalisation of technology they are also consistent with the notion that firms are increasingly engaging in small scale activities to monitor and scan new technological developments in centres of excellence in foreign countries within their areas of existing strength however there is little evidence to suggest that even these most internationalised firms routinely go abroad to compensate for their weakness at home

credible enticements can host governments tailor multinational firms organizations to suit national objectives abstract this article discusses the impact of host government policy inconsistency on multinational corporations relationships with local suppliers that benefit from public funding empirical findings suggest that such relationships suffer from transactions cost disadvantages due to concerns that unexpected losses of funding may cause the suppliers to demand new contracts the findings reflect statistical tests on a structural equation latent variable model using data from a survey of 111 affiliates of mncs operating in 36 countries

multidivisional vs metanational governance of the multinational enterprise the effective and efficient management of diversified business firms that supply multiple products and operate in multiple dynamic markets especially large multinational enterprises mnes builds upon a number of specific governance principles these governance principles allow the alignment of environmental characteristics strategy and organization given the rising need to learn from the world doz et al in their influential harvard business school press book entitled from global to metanational have proposed a new set of governance principles described under the metanational umbrella concept this paper revisits the metanational using a comparative institutional perspective here we contrast multidivisional and metanational governance principles a comparative institutional analysis suggests that the metanational s application potential in terms of actually improving the effectiveness and efficiency of mne governance may be subject to more qualification than suggested by doz et al senior mne management must therefore reflect carefully before substituting metanational governance principles for the more conventional multidivisional ones with established contributions to managerial effectiveness and efficiency

offshoring administrative and technical work new fields for understanding the global enterprise in this paper we introduce the journal of international business studies special issue on offshoring administrative and technical services ats in doing so we have attempted to locate the topic within the international business research tradition as well as suggest challenges and opportunities that the phenomenon offers to theoretical and empirical research in the field we examine the interplay of costs knowledge and innovation in the evolution of ats offshoring from modest beginnings to its current stature as an accepted business practice we suggest that understanding the continuing evolution of ats offshoring requires researchers to take into account not only the business imperative of cost saving but also a more complex set of underlying factors and potential outcomes we argue that the rapid growth of ats offshoring has brought about an accumulation of resources including financial flows knowledge infrastructure and human capital to create new platforms for knowledge creation and innovation low costs may characterize the initial conditions for offshoring but they also provide the basis for up market moves as firms increasingly pursue innovation based strategies we introduce the papers in the special issue as integral elements in our discussion contributing new ideas that stimulated our thinking and hopefully will do the same for others seeking to understand this emerging area of globalization and international managerial practice journal of international business studies 2009 40 887 900 doi 10 1057 jibs 2009 22

outsourcing and offshoring implications for productivity of business services this paper reviews the implications of outsourcing and offshoring for the productivity of business services in the uk official statistics indicate that business service productivity has grown by over 20 per cent in the last 7 years at the same time as employment grew by 20 per cent the paper considers possible factors that account for the simultaneous growth of employment and productivity first we discuss outsourcing and offshoring and their role in enhancing productivity through greater specialization standardization and consolidation of business processes and a shift to higher value added services outsourcing of business services is interpreted as part of corporate restructuring namely as the unbundling of corporate functions as well as vertical disintegration second as some services become more like products both low skilled and high skilled jobs are subjected to productivity growth through standardization and digitization it is argued however that the future of business service productivity is on a knife edge depending on the mix of two sources of productivity enhancement namely greater standardization and capturing value from customized solutions copyright 2006 oxford university press

market versus technology drive in r d internationalization four different patterns of managing research and development research and development are subject to different location drivers the analysis of 1021 r d units each distinguished by its main orientation towards either research or development work reveals that research is concentrated in only five regions worldwide while development is more globally dispersed our research is based on 290 research interviews and database research in 81 technology intensive multinational companies we identify two principal location rationales access to markets and access to science as the principal determinants for four trends that lead to four archetypes of r d internationalization national treasure market driven technology driven and global their organizational evolution is characterized by four trends the model is illustrated with short cases of international r d organization at kubota schindler xerox and glaxo wellcome differences in rd separation seems to contradict this trend we argue that this need not be the case for there are good reasons to maintain some independence between research and development

the role of path dependency and managerial intentionality a perspective on international business research several decades of research in the field of international business have advanced various theories and studies on the internationalization of firms our assessment of the literature on internationalization shows that the focus has been primarily on path dependency and learning based aspects of internationalization while managerial intentionality and the possibility of managers making deliberate strategic choices towards further internationalization have not been very prominent in the ib literature we argue that internationalization paths and processes should be approached as a joint outcome of management intentionality and experience based learning in other words managers are assumed to have the ability and the intention to influence the evolutionary paths of the firm we derive a future research agenda that calls for the pursuit of this promising and emergent research stream moreover we develop a model integrating managerial intentionality knowledge experience and other factors institutional and selection forces to explain heterogeneous outcomes of internationalization positions paths and processes

the globalisation of technology what remains of the product cycle model this paper reexamines two hypotheses associated with earlier versions of the product cycle model the first hypothesis that innovations are almost always located in the home country of the parent company is rejected on the basis of evidence drawn from one hundred years of u s patent office data the second hypothesis that the international dispersion of activity is led by technology leaders is historically valid however over the last twenty years technology leaders have been ahead instead in the globalization of technology that is in developing internal international networks to exploit the locationally differentiated potential of foreign centers of excellence c 1995 academic press inc copyright 1995 by oxford university press

research and productivity in mexican agriculture partial and total factor productivity tfp measures of mexican agriculture are calculated for 1960 90 the long run effects of research and international transfer of technology on tfp are examined over the 1940 90 period using cointegration procedures tfp increased at an average annual rate of 2 5 exceeding the corresponding growth in the united states 2 1 tfp grew particularly fast in the 1960s and 1970s a 1 rise in research investment increased tfp by 0 13 and a 1 increase in u s tfp translated into a 1 11 increase in mexican tfp the average annual rate of return to research investment is about 64

extending the theory of the multinational enterprise internalization and strategic management perspectives this paper assesses the continued relevance of buckley and casson s 1976 book on the future of the multinational enterprise mne against a background of increasing criticism of transaction cost related scholarly work we demonstrate that the schism that can currently be observed in the field between international business and international management is misguided as the transaction cost internalization school may offer useful insights to both management scholars and managers for this to occur however it is necessary first to extend the empirical scope of transaction cost based reasoning to include the functioning of differentiated network mnes the paper suggests that buckley and casson s book still represents a beacon of clarity and a superb starting point for the study of the mne even if the complexity of this governance structure has grown far beyond what any international business scholar or even international management scholar could have predicted 25 years ago

uneven and combined development understanding india s software exports abstract the evolution of the indian software sector is explained by the larger context of uneven and combined development the imperatives of a market driven global order suggest an open ended process of development making some economic and technological convergence realizable but also generating contradictions at various levels this paper focuses on differential innovative capability the uneven diffusion of technical education in india and the increasing economic integration of the software industry as sources of uneven development the combined nature of the development process is reflected in the coexistence of the successful software sector with several lagging sectors with all of them being functionally integrated as part of indian social formation to cope with the contradictions of such change a balanced development will be critical to make development more inclusive deep structural problems that plague those outside the orbit of the successful software industry must be resolved

transactions cost economics and the multinational enterprise an assessment abstract this paper applies transactions cost principles to the multinational enterprise in order to ascertain its distinctive properties as a mode of economic organization the analysis helps identify just when and where contractual alternatives to the multinational firm are likely to be viable this turns out to depend upon the nature of the technology the regime of appropriability within which the firm operates and the characteristics of the markets in question transactions cost analysis is also extended to the multinational enterprise host country relationship implications for management and public policy are derived

semiglobalization and international business strategy if markets were either completely isolated by or integrated across borders there would be little room for international business strategy to have content distinctive from mainstream strategy but a review of the economic evidence about the international integration of markets indicates that we fall in between these extremes into a state of incomplete cross border integration that i refer to as semiglobalization more specifically most measures of market integration have scaled new heights in the last few decades but still fall far short of economic theory s ideal of perfect integration the diagnosis of semiglobalization does more than just supply a relatively stable frame of reference for thinking about the environment of cross border operations it also calls attention to the critical role of location specificity in the prospects of distinctive content for international business strategy relative to mainstream business and corporate strategy in addition it flags factors products subject to location specificity as being salient from the perspective of international business finally it highlights the scope for strategies that strive to capitalize on the large residual barriers to cross border integration as well as those that simply try to cope with them

linking product and process innovations and modes of international sourcing in global competition a case of foreign multinational firms in increasingly complex global competition multinational firms u s and foreign alike have stepped up international sourcing of components and finished products to serve various markets since an increasing portion of global competition is shaped by european and japanese multinational firms with due emphasis on product quality and manufacturing it is an opportune time to examine the like among their product development manufacturing and sourcing activities those european and japanese multinational firms marketing products in the united states are chosen as subjects of this study

foreign direct investment in industrial research in the pharmaceutical and electronics industries results from a survey of multinational firms abstract this paper examines motives location characteristics inter temporal characteristics and modes of entry for foreign direct investment fdi in research and development r d the paper is based on a detailed empirical survey of laboratory sites established by 32 large multinational companies domiciled in 5 countries findings indicate that fdi in r d has risen considerably over the last 40 years and that firms invest in r d sites abroad in order to augment their knowledge base or in order to exploit it the former motive leads to establishment of facilities primarily close to universities while the latter type leads to establishment of facilities close to existing manufacturing facilities and markets the paper also finds that greenfield investments are the dominant mode of entry and that firms establish multiple r d sites in their home countries before investing in such sites abroad

the next wave of globalization relocating service provision to india summary services offshoring to india has grown dramatically in the last 10 years it is linked to the earlier expansion of indian software services exports but has its own dynamic and workforce although domestic firms were early entrants mncs are central actors already some work done in india resembles that done in developed countries to explain the dynamism and complexity of offshoring a taxonomy of market participants is presented offshoring by small entrepreneurial us firms is highlighted as an emerging phenomenon the conclusion argues that market entry by other developing countries is possible

regaining the edge for international business research the key to international business is that it approaches empirical phenomena at a variety of levels of analysis using a variety of theoretical frameworks the most important levels of analysis are the individual manager the firm the industry and the environment in each category there is vast heterogeneity figure 2 1 illustrates this interaction between issues and theories it has levels of analysis on the vertical axis and the basic social sciences on the horizontal axis as systems of thinking about the phenomena it would also be possible to replace fundamental disciplines by the primary management disciplines marketing finance strategy etc

where ricardo and mill rebut and confirm arguments of mainstream economists supporting globalization most noneconomists are fearful when an emerging china or india helped by their still low real wage rates outsourcing and miracle export led developments cause layoffs from good american jobs this is a hot issue now and in the coming decade it will not go away prominent and competent mainstream economists enter into the debate to educate and correct warm hearted protestors who are against globalization here is a fair paraphrase of the argumentation that has been used recently by alan greenspan jagdish bhagwati gregory mankiw douglas irwin and economists john or jane doe spread widely throughout academia yes good jobs may be lost here in the short run but still total u s net national product must by the economic laws of comparative advantage be raised in the long run and in china too the gains of the winners from free trade properly measured work out to exceed the losses of the losers this is not by mysterious fuzzy magic but rather comes from a sharing of the trade induced rise in total global vectors of the goods and services that people in a democracy want never forget to tally the real gains of consumers alongside admitted possible losses of some producers in this working out of what schumpeter called creative capitalist destruction correct economic law recognizes that some american groups can be hurt by dynamic free trade but correct economic law vindicates the word creative destruction by its proof sic that the gains of the american winners are big enough to more than compensate the losers

location versus home country advantages in r d activities some further results on multinationals locational strategies abstract in this paper we study the question of the determinants of the foreign location of technological activities of multinational firms mnfs do they locate their knowledge activities as a consequence of their home country advantages or according to host country strengths we have defined four types of strategy learning according to revealed technological advantages our results based on the 345 mnfs with the greatest patenting activity in europe globally confirm the main findings of patel and vega research policy 28 2 3 1999 145 155 in a great majority of cases nearly 70 mnfs locate their activities abroad in technological areas or fields where they are strong at home strategies 2 and 3 moreover strategy 3 which corresponds with dynamic learning outclasses strategy 2 which corresponds with myopic learning and becomes increasingly important over time the strategy of japanese firms is very different from european and us mnfs in europe japanese firms seek out locations that have complementary strengths to their own strategy 2 in terms of policy implications it can be noted that the national system of innovation in particular the system of academic research should strengthen the technological advantages of local firms and enable them to successfully locate a part of their r d activities abroad

global delivery models the role of talent speed and time zones in the global outsourcing industry global delivery models gdms are transforming the global it and business process outsourcing industry gdms are a new form of client specific investment promoting service integration with clients by combining client proximity with time zone spread for 24 7 service operations we investigate antecedents and contingencies of setting up gdm structures based on comprehensive data we show that providers are likely to establish gdm location configurations when clients value access to globally distributed talent and speed of service delivery in particular when services are highly commoditized findings imply that coordination across time zones increasingly affects international operations in business to business and born global industries

knowledge and competitive advantage the coevolution of firms technology and national institutions this issue of jibs offers reviews of two books that analyse the dynamic interaction between the business environments and business strategies in very different ways the institutional underpinnings for business strategies are a major research topic for comparative management aiming to explain why in different contexts firms pursue different strategies and with different implications for performance j peter murman in knowledge and competitive advantage takes a historical perspective focusing on the co evolutionary processes between national innovation systems business strategies and performance this books thus adds to the industry level longitudinal research reviewed in jibs no 4 2003 tom murtha et al s managing new industry creation and david mckendrick et al s from silicon valley to singapore

the drivers of foreign direct investment into research and development an empirical investigation this paper examines the determinants of foreign direct investment fdi in research and development laboratories by 32 multinational enterprises in the pharmaceutical and electronics industries the paper applies a dichotomous set of motives for fdi results from an econometric analysis of 136 laboratory investments show that relative market size and relative strength of a country s science base determine whether fdi in research and development is carried out in order to exploit existing firm specific advantages or in order to build up new firm specific advantages this holds true in similar form for japanese european and u s firms and across the two industries

large firms in the production of the world s technology an important case of non globalisation us patenting by 686 of the world s largest manufacturing firms shows that their share of the world s production of technology is less than their share of r d activities and varies greatly amongst sectors in most cases the technological activities of these large firms are concentrated in their home country the characteristics of which influence the volume and trends in their technological activities much more strongly then the international component of these activities at the same time these large firms are major elements in the volume and the pattern of sectoral specializations in their home countries technological activities

an energy pricing scheme for the diffusion of decentralized renewable technology investment in developing countries the purpose of this paper is to investigate price support for market penetration of renewable energy in developing nations through a decentralized supply process we integrate the new decentralized energy support renewable premium tariff to analyze impacts of tariff incentives on the diffusion of renewable technology in senegal based on photovoltaic and wind technologies and an assessment of renewable energy resources in senegal an optimization technique is combined with a cash flow analysis to investigate investment decisions in renewable energy sector our findings indicate that this support mechanism could strengthen the sustainable deployment of renewable energy in remote areas of senegal although different payoffs emerged profits associated with a renewable premium tariff are the highest among the set of existing payoffs moreover in analyzing impacts of price incentives on social welfare we show that price tariffing schemes must be strategically scrutinized in order to minimize welfare loss associated with price incentives finally we argue that a sustainable promotion of incentive mechanisms supporting deployment of renewable technology in developing nations should be carried out under reliable institutional structures the additional advantage of the proposed methodology is its ability to integrate different stakeholders producers investors and consumers in the planning process