The Internationalization of Corporate R&D

THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF CORPORATE R&D4 The Internationalization of Swedish CorporateR&DPhilip Löf4.1 IntroductionIn a small, open economy such as Sweden’s, companies depend on foreign markets forsurvival. Multinational companies play a pronounced role in the Swedish economy andaccount for 70 percent of the employment as well as over 90 percent of all corporateR&D expenditures. In an increasingly competitive and international economy, one ofthe most important policy issues is how to attract and retain R&D activities and R&Dintensiveproduction that can bring added value to Sweden.The main purpose of this chapter is to investigate what we know about theinternationalization of Swedish R&D based on available data and studies. We addressthis by focusing on the following questions:• What are the trends in outward and inward R&D investments in Sweden?• Where do Swedish multinational companies perform R&D activities?The study mainly draws on empirical studies covering Swedish multinational companiesbut also presents some new analysis of existing data.In Section 4.2, related available data and Swedish empirical studies are discussed. Section4.3 discusses the trend of Swedish R&D investments between 1990 and 2003.Section 4.4 describes the internationalization of the Swedish R&D. Section 4.5 discussesSwedish R&D investments over the last ten years, measured as R&D personnelwithin 20 Swedish multinational companies. In Section 4.6, conclusions are drawn.4.2 Available DataWhen discussing R&D data, it is important to separate data that cover R&D performanceand data that cover R&D funding. Both data sets are usually collected via survey.R&D performance surveys are designed to reveal how much R&D is performed indifferent regions, while R&D funding surveys are designed to reveal how that R&D ispaid for. Both data sources can be used as indicators of internationalization of R&D.R&D performance is usually measured by R&D expenditure or R&D personnel perregion. R&D funding is usually measured by the amount of R&D money flowing betweencountries.105