New perspectives on the innovation strategies of multinational enterprises: lessons for technology policy in Europe

The aim of this contribution is to learn more about changes in the innovati on strategies of large multinational corporations, whereby one focus is on internationalization aspects. As sources for our analyses we reviewed the m ain empirical studies and gathered information and insights from 21 corpora tions. Our results show, firstly, that the internationalization of research and technology is still characterized by 'Triadization' involving companie s from the US, the European Union and Japan. Secondly, qualitative motives are increasingly driving R&D location decisions, like learning from technol ogical excellence and lead markets and dynamic interactions within the valu e chain. Thirdly, the process of internationalization in research and techn ology has been accompanied by an increasingly selective focus on a very few locations and the concentration of innovation activities on worldwide cent ers of excellence. We conclude that these changes in the innovation strateg ies of large multinational companies put several topics on the agenda for t echnology policy in Europe: (1) a stronger focus on extra-European collabor ation and mobility, (2) strengthening the attractiveness of the European Un ion to foreign R&D investment and (3) the absorptive capacities of R&D orga nizations in Europe, (4) a stronger integration of different policy areas a nd of indirect policy measures (5) as well as the establishment of a transp arent and global framework for policy coordination and priority-setting wor ldwide. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.