ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some empirical evidence of new trends in globalization of corporate R&D, i.e. performance of strategic R&D in developing countries by TNCs.
Table 4.1 gives the results of Ministry of International Trade and Industry’s (MITI) survey of globalization of R&D by Japanese companies in 1990. The data show the dominant functions of overseas laboratories of Japanese firms to be supporting local production and sales, developing products for the local markets and technology monitoring. However, the data also show that Japanese R&D laboratories in other Asian countries are playing a significant role in developing products for the global markets as well as in basic research. Out of forty-four that mentioned developing products for the international markets as the main function of their overseas laboratories, fourteen are located in Asia, twenty in North America and eight in Europe. Out of twenty-five respondents whose overseas laboratories’ main function is to carry out basic research, ten have their laboratories in other Asian countries, while thirteen are located in North America and one in Europe.
