The Internationalization of Corporate R&D

THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF CORPORATE R&DFigure 4-10 Distribution of employment between Sweden, high-income OECD and non-OECD, 1997–2003.100%90%80%70%60%50%40%30%20%10%0%1997 1999 2001 2003Sw eden High income OECD, excl. Sw eden Non-OECDNote: The 20 largest Swedish-controlled multinational companies.Source: ITPS 2005a and calculations performed for this study.One interpretation of Figures 4-9 and 4-10 is that the Swedish-owned multinationalcompanies have not internationalized R&D activities to the same extent as productionand other business activities (approximated by total employment). Over 60 percent ofthe companies’ R&D personnel were employed in Sweden, while only 25 percent oftheir total number of personnel were employed in Sweden in 2003. This suggests thatthe Swedish multinational companies’ R&D is less internationalized compared to theirproduction and other business activities.It is also interesting to note that the total employment share in Sweden dropped whilethe share of R&D personnel is more stable between 1997 and 2003. This suggests thatthe internationalization process for R&D activity is much slower than the internationalizationprocess of production. This aligns with the theory that R&D activities are tosome extent embedded in the company’s home environment. Research literature suggeststhat corporate R&D is connected to the home innovation system and to someextent “sticky” (see Chapter 3). The data in Figures 4-9 and 4-10 show that this seemsto be true for Sweden as well.121