Publication Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

9-2014

Abstract

The internationalization of R&D activity by multinational enterprises (MNEs) is increasing, with a recent big push towards emerging economies. Understanding how MNEs organize collaborative R&D across geographies is therefore an important area of scholarship. However, little attention has been paid towards understanding the factors that influence the division of innovative labor within an MNE across geographies – the internal division of innovative labor. Drawing on the literature that shows that strong protection for intellectual property (IP) is important for the efficient division of innovative labor between firms, we argue and show that differences in effectiveness of IP protection between international locations significantly influences the internal division of innovative labor, especially for R&D aimed at the host market when compared to R&D aimed at the home market.

Keywords

Division of innovative labor, Intellectual Property Regimes (IPR), R&D offshoring, Multinational R&D strategy, global organization of work, knowledge spillover

Discipline

Labor Relations | Organizational Behavior and Theory | Strategic Management Policy

Research Areas

Strategy and Organisation

First Page

1

Last Page

48

Identifier

10.2139/ssrn.2499158

Additional URL

http://doi.org./10.2139/ssrn.2499158

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