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The Role of Multinational Corporations in Metropolitan Innovation Systems: Empirical Evidence from Europe and Southeast Asia

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  • Javier Revilla Diez
  • Martin Berger

Abstract

Using firm-level survey data from Barcelona, Stockholm, and Vienna in Europe, and Singapore, Penang (Malaysia), and Bangkok in Southeast Asia, we enquire into the different R&D and innovation behaviour of multinational and local companies in these metropolitan regions. Scrutinizing a set of input, throughput, and output indicators as well as information on cooperation characteristics, we try to evaluate (a) if the spatial pattern of more (intense) innovation activity in Europe when compared with Southeast Asia is still valid; and (b) if there are reasons to believe that R&D units of multinational corporations in Europe are concerned mainly with the enhancement of the knowledge base and the development of future competitiveness by tapping into localized knowledge and using the particular host regions' innovation systems, whereas multinational corporations in Southeast Asia use R&D to support existing production facilities in order to exploit an existing competitive advantage. We are able to show that there is still a major gap in innovation performance between Southeast Asia and Europe and that there are indeed indications that R&D units in Europe are orientated more towards the augmentation of the company's knowledge base.

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  • Javier Revilla Diez & Martin Berger, 2005. "The Role of Multinational Corporations in Metropolitan Innovation Systems: Empirical Evidence from Europe and Southeast Asia," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(10), pages 1813-1835, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:37:y:2005:i:10:p:1813-1835
    DOI: 10.1068/a3733
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    1. Liefner, Ingo & Schiller, Daniel, 2008. "Academic capabilities in developing countries--A conceptual framework with empirical illustrations from Thailand," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 276-293, March.
    2. Liu, Meng-chun & Chen, Shin-Horng, 2012. "MNCs’ offshore R&D networks in host country's regional innovation system: The case of Taiwan-based firms in China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1107-1120.
    3. Simona Iammarino & Jan-Philipp Kramer & Elisabetta Marinelli & Javier Revilla Diez, 2012. "Technological Capabilities and the Regional Embeddedness of Multinational Enterprises. A Case Study of Germany and the UK," Chapters, in: Martin Heidenreich (ed.), Innovation and Institutional Embeddedness of Multinational Companies, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Jérôme Stuck & Tom Broekel & Javier Revilla Diez, 2016. "Network Structures in Regional Innovation Systems," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 423-442, March.
    5. Jan-Philipp Kramer & Javier Revilla Diez & Elisabetta Marinelli & Simona Iammarino, 2010. "Intangible assets and MNEs’ locational strategies for innovation—or: why the regional matters," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 30(2), pages 129-157, September.
    6. Javier Revilla Diez & Matthias Kiese, 2006. "Scaling Innovation in South East Asia: Empirical Evidence from Singapore, Penang (Malaysia) and Bangkok," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(9), pages 1005-1023.
    7. Yifei Sun & Debin Du, 2011. "Domestic Firm Innovation and Networking with Foreign Firms in China's ICT Industry," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(4), pages 786-809, April.

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