The Internationalization of Corporate R&D

THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF CORPORATE R&Dcountries in 2003. The U.S. accounted for 38 percent of these companies, Japan for22 percent, and Germany for 13 percent. Sweden ranked number seven with 15 (2percent) of the total 700 companies (DTI 2004).The top five Swedish-controlled companies in terms of total R&D spending in 2004were Ericsson with 3011 million R&D dollars (17 percent R&D intensity), Volvo 1225(4.3 percent), TeliaSonera 381 (3.4 percent), Autoliv 335 (6 percent) and Scania 315(4 percent) (EC 2005b).Figure 2-3 R&D expenditure (billion dollars) and R&D intensity (R&D as a percentage of sales) in2004 in selected industry sectors (with the number of companies in the sector indicated).3025Biotechnology(17)R&D intensity (%)20151050Semiconductors& Components(15)Netw ork & CommunicationsEq.(7)Softw are & DataServices (19)Chemicals Computer &(20) Office Eq. (17)Medical Eq. (11)Aerospace &Defense (16)Pharmaceuticals(27)Electronics &Electrical Eq. (33)Motor Vehicles& Parts (32)0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70R&D expenditure (BUSD)Note: Data from annual reports from the 320 top R&D-spending companies worldwide, classified by industry sectoraccording to the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) System.Source: Bowonder et al. 2005.2.1.3 Corporate R&D TrendsThe structure of corporate R&D is changing in a number of ways that have implicationsfor innovation systems and policymakers (see for example Karlsson 2004).End of growth pattern. Corporate R&D investment has experienced steady growthin most OECD countries since the early 1990s. However, after a peak around 2001,R&D investments have shifted to a pattern of stagnating and even decreasing levelsof investments.American companies made steep cutbacks and R&D performed by industry declinedfrom 2.0 to 1.8 percent of GDP between 2001 and 2003. The decline in Sweden wasfrom 3.3 to 2.9 percent of GDP (Armbrecht 2005, MSTI 2005, SCB 2005).59