Introduction

The key actors in a global knowledge-based economy are multinational enterprises (MNEs). MNEs are essential protagonists in international innovation processes and increasingly organise their research and development (R&D) on an international scale. They provide important channels for the transfer of technological knowledge across national as well as cultural and institutional borders. MNEs can thus be analysed as cross-border networks for the innerorganisational transfer of technological competencies. As apparently footloose companies, they represent important nodes in a global economy. At the same time, however, in many cases at least the core activities of knowledge generation are still concentrated in the home countries of MNEs (Howells 1990; Filippaios et al. 2009). The home country also plays a vital role in the technological profile of most MNEs (von Zedtwitz and Gassmann 2002). It is therefore necessary to distinguish between the role of “MNEs as vehicles for technology transfer and MNEs as generators of new technology” (Dunning and Lundan 2009: 14). In both roles, however, in the cases of home-base-exploiting and home-base-augmenting strategies (Kuemmerle 1997, 1999) the regional environments of corporate headquarters and subsidiaries are an important source of contacts with suppliers, customers and competitors, for knowledge, R&D partners, political support and qualified employees (Cantwell and Mudambi 2005). Therefore, MNEs are not only internationally (or in some cases even globally) active organisations but also nationally and regionally embedded ones.