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R&D networks and innovation: decentralised product development in multinational enterprises
Author(s) -
Pearce Robert,
Papanastassiou Marina
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
randd management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.253
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1467-9310
pISSN - 0033-6807
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9310.1996.tb00968.x
Subject(s) - multinational corporation , business , subsidiary , product (mathematics) , industrial organization , new product development , competitive advantage , core (optical fiber) , core product , key (lock) , marketing , computer science , telecommunications , geometry , mathematics , computer security , finance
This paper documents the ways in which overseas R&D in MNEs now plays roles in what are innovative new approaches to innovation itself. Networks of laboratories are seen as supporting both the short‐term and long‐term competitive evolution of the MNE group's globally‐effective product innovation. In terms of the immediate commercial application of new products for global markets it is argued that product development labs work within creative overseas subsidiaries in MNEs. These aim to derive variants of the new product that fully meet the distinctive needs of each key regional market. Another separate network of decentralised MNE labs carry out precompetitive (basic or applied) research, embodying particular areas of technological comparative advantage of their host countries. This network of labs therefore provides inputs into a centrally‐articulated programme whose objective is to provide the basis of the longer‐term technological evolution of the MNE, by upgrading the core knowledge from which future generations of innovative products can emerge.