Internationalizing R&D Improves a Firm's Technical Learning

Abstract

OVERVIEW:Companies have been reluctant to internationalize the R&D function. The reasons for keeping R&D geographically centralized are mostly related to preserving optimal communication patterns. But market forces, and the diffusion of the sources of technological know-how, oblige many companies to decentralize and internationalize their R&D laboratories. How does one manage this international network of laboratories? The author takes the position that companies internationalize R&D to improve the process of technical learning. If this is the case, the management of the laboratory network has to stimulate this technical learning. On the basis of 14 case studies, five areas warrant attention: creating and preserving the diversity of the laboratories, improving the communication network, enhancing the credibility of the laboratories, repositioning the planning exercise as a learning process, and creating internal and external organizational networks.

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