ABSTRACT
Internationalization of corporate technology development activities is not as recent a phenomenon as it is thought to be. Since the 1960s, companies have been performing some sort of research and development (R&D) activities outside their home countries for one reason or the other. In a study, Cantwell (1998) found that even as early as in the 1930s, the largest European and American companies performed about 7 per cent of their total R&D outside their home countries. But, the magnitude, nature and scope of the overseas R&D performed in the past were limited. Much of such R&D was undertaken either to facilitate technology transfer by adapting the parent’s technology to local operating conditions or to gain a greater share of the local markets by developing products that met the preferences of the local customers better.
