AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings - Academy of International ...

MONDAY
MNCs. (For more information, please contact: Heather K Berry, George Washington University, USA:
berryh@gwu.edu)
Building Effective R&D Portfolios: Location Choices and Performance Consequences
Mario Kafouros, University of Leeds
Niron Hashai, The Hebrew University
Chengqi Wang, Nottingham University Business School
Though R&D internationalization is central to organizational strategy, its consequences for firm performance
remain less well understood, thus limiting scholarly theorizing about the forces shaping the success of overseas
innovation. The current study is designed to address this lack of understanding. In contrast to single-location
analyses, our conceptualization extends prior theorizing on the globalization of innovation by capturing firms'
entire portfolios of R&D labs, their location choices in the global landscape, and differences in the resulting
distribution of R&D labs. Our contribution lies in explaining how, and the extent to which, R&D portfolios enable
MNEs to exploit globally dispersed location bound resources. Our analysis generates implications for theory,
indicating that the effects of R&D on performance not only depend on the degree of its internationalization, but
also on how it is internationalized. (For more information, please contact: Mario Kafouros, University of Leeds,
United Kingdom: mk@lubs.leeds.ac.uk)
Superstar Inventors in Foreign Subsidiaries of the MNC
Katarina Blomkvist, Uppsala University
Philip Kappen, Uppsala University
Ivo Zander, Uppsala University
This paper develops a micro-perspective on the geographical dispersion of technological renewal in foreign
subsidiaries of the multinational corporation (MNC). We draw upon an original data set comprising 371 foreign
subsidiaries of 21 Swedish MNCs and follow their patenting activity to document the distribution of inventive
activity both across and within individual subsidiaries. Findings at the subsidiary level show that the distribution
of technological activity and contribution to the overall multinational group is significantly skewed, and we
proceed to empirically explore the assumption that a similar distribution applies also at the level of individual
inventors. The results point to a pattern where most inventors make only occasional and limited technological
contributions and more significant numbers of new technological discoveries are instead attributable to a select
group of exceptionally inventive individuals. In the light of the results, we revisit the geographical distribution of
technological capabilities in the MNC, and suggest the fruitfulness of applying a people-centric perspective on
the sources of sustained competitive advantage of the MNC, the management of geographically dispersed
capabilities in the multinational network, and the geographical sources of invention in the MNC. (For more
information, please contact: Katarina Blomkvist, Uppsala University, Sweden: katarina.blomkvist@fek.uu.se)
Evolution of Global Innovation Network in MNEs
Charles Dhanaraj, Indiana University
Srivardhini K. Jha, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Technological innovation is the cornerstone of competitive advantage –both for individual firms and for national
economies. Advances in the institutional environment, and the changing dynamics of product and factor
markets have systematically expanded the innovation networks of most multinational enterprises (MNEs) across
the globe. As the innovation networks expand globally, achieving excellence or productivity in research and
development (R&D) and ensuring appropriability of the innovation are the two major challenges for an MNE.
While empirical research on MNE R&D has proliferated in recent years, theoretical development has been
lagging significantly. Our paper fills this gap by addressing the central question in multinational R&D: How does
an MNE's innovation network evolve Specifically, we draw on institutional and resource-dependence
perspectives to extend the network model of MNE. We develop propositions to predict the onset of R&D
mandate in a subsidiary, and the scope of the R&D function at a node, and the level of autonomy and
AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings
Page 104