THE ORGANIZATION AND GEOGRAPHY OF JAPANESE RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT -RESULTS FROM A SURVEY OF JAPANESE ELECTRONICS AND BIOTECHNOLOGY FIRMS

The paper reports the results of a mail survey of and personal intervi ews with R&D managers of the largest Japanese electronics and biotechn ology firms regarding the organizational and geographic dimensions of their R&D activities. The results indicate that the importance of mult i-functional teams for Japanese R&D has been overemphasized. The trans fer of employees between R&D and manufacturing and joint meetings are judged as being the most important factors in ensuring the information transfer between the two corporate functions. The findings indicate t hat basic research facilities have significant locational flexibility. However, applied research and production engineering need to be in cl ose proximity to manufacturing. The differences between the electronic s and biotechnology industries were only rarely significant.