The Internationalization of Corporate R&D

THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF CORPORATE R&DDuring the 1980s, the Finnish ICT manufacturing industry experienced stablegrowth, which only paused in the deep economic recession in the early 1990s. Bythen, Swedish and Finnish ICT manufacturing was about the same size, in relation tothe national GDP of the two countries.After the recession of the early 1990s, Swedish and particularly Finnish ICT manufacturingvalue added grew very rapidly compared to most other countries in the world. By year2000, Finnish ICT manufacturing represented as much as 5.8 percent of GDP, an amazingincrease from the 0.6 percent in 1980. In comparison, Swedish ICT manufacturing represented1.5 percent of GDP in 1980, reached a peak of about 2.6 percent in 1999, butdropped considerably in the early 2000s. As a consequence of the rapid, global growth intelecommunications and strong Swedish competitiveness in telecom manufacturing, theSwedish ICT industry emerged as one of the most profitable in the world, particularly duringthe 1990s. In the process, ICT industry productivity growth increased considerably, asdid its share of exports, value added and employment (see Figure 5-1).Figure 5-1 Total ICT manufacturing value added as a share of GDP, 1980–2002.7,06,05,04,03,02,01,00,0198019821984198619881990199219941996199820002002Ireland Korea Finland JapanSw eden Sw itzerland United States United KingdomSource: OECD, STAN 2005.133