IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/apbizr/v13y2007i3p425-449.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Country Relational Distance, Organizational Power and R&D Managers: Understanding Environmental Challenges for Foreign R&D in China

Author

Listed:
  • Yifei Sun
  • Ke Wen

Abstract

This study examines the challenges of foreign research and development (R&D) in China, based on interviews with 32 senior R&D managers. It confirms the findings from previous research that many barriers still exist in China for foreign R&D, and such barriers include institutional environment, infrastructure and labour management. Among the three categories, issues related labour management, such as increasing labour cost and mobility, lack of experience and creativity and cultural differences among the research staff, prove to be most challenging for management, while China's institutions and infrastructure do not seem to pose big problems for foreign companies. This study also finds that responses from R&D managers are not consistent, and the differences could be largely explained by three types of factors: relational distance between the parent country and China, the strength and experience of foreign companies, and the manager's personal experience and closeness with China. Further research is needed to explore these issues due to the small sample size of this study.

Suggested Citation

  • Yifei Sun & Ke Wen, 2007. "Country Relational Distance, Organizational Power and R&D Managers: Understanding Environmental Challenges for Foreign R&D in China," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 425-449, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apbizr:v:13:y:2007:i:3:p:425-449
    DOI: 10.1080/13602380701291982
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13602380701291982
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13602380701291982?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:bla:econom:v:46:y:1979:i:182:p:187-96 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Vachani, Sushil, 2005. "Problems of foreign subsidiaries of SMEs compared with large companies," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 415-439, August.
    3. Reddy, Prasada, 1997. "New trends in globalization of corporate R&D and implications for innovation capability in host countries: A survey from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(11), pages 1821-1837, November.
    4. Yingfeng Xu, 2001. "Can Tariff-Jumping Foreign Investment Be Beneficial?," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 161-177, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amelia U. Santos-Paulino & Mariagrazia Squicciarini & Peilei Fan, 2008. "R&D (Re)location: A Bird's Eye (Re)view," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-100, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Yunlong Duan & Hanxiao Liu & Zhiqing Deng & Peng Tao, 2021. "The Impact of Cross-Border R&D Sourcing on the Innovation Quality of MNCs, from the Perspective of Business Model Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-22, April.
    3. Farndale, Elaine & Beamond, Maria & Corbett-Etchevers, Isabelle & Xu, Shiyong, 2022. "Accessing host country national talent in emerging economies: A resource perspective review and future research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(1).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrea Coveri & Antonello Zanfei, 2023. "Who wins the race for knowledge-based competitiveness? Comparing European and North American FDI patterns," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 292-330, February.
    2. Anja Heinicke, 2018. "Performance measurement systems in small and medium-sized enterprises and family firms: a systematic literature review," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 457-502, February.
    3. Kuang-Chung Hsu & Yungho Weng, 2018. "Detecting which firm-specific characteristics impact market-oriented R&D," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 1695-1715, December.
    4. Roper, Stephen & Hewitt-Dundas, Nola & Love, James H., 2004. "An ex ante evaluation framework for the regional benefits of publicly supported R&D projects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 487-509, April.
    5. Santiago-Rodriguez, Fernando, 2008. "Facing the Trial of Internationalizing Clinical Trials to Developing Countries: Some Evidence from Mexico," MERIT Working Papers 2008-023, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    6. Dirk M. Boehe, 2010. "Captive Offshoring of New Product Development in Brazil," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 747-773, December.
    7. Madan Dhanora & Ruchi Sharma & Walter G. Park, 2021. "Technological Innovations and Market Power: A Study of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry," Millennial Asia, , vol. 12(1), pages 5-34, April.
    8. Micheline Riemsdijk, 2013. "Talent Acquisition in the IT Industry in Bangalore: A Multi-Level Study," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 104(4), pages 478-490, September.
    9. Manning, Stephan & Ricart, Joan E. & Rosatti Rique, Maria Soledad & Lewin, Arie Y., 2010. "From blind spots to hotspots: How knowledge services clusters develop and attract foreign investment," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 369-382, December.
    10. Dominguez, Noémie & Mayrhofer, Ulrike, 2017. "Internationalization stages of traditional SMEs: Increasing, decreasing and re-increasing commitment to foreign markets," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 1051-1063.
    11. Lema, Rasmus & Quadros, Ruy & Schmitz, Hubert, 2015. "Reorganising global value chains and building innovation capabilities in Brazil and India," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(7), pages 1376-1386.
    12. Zhai, Zhe & Ghosal, Vivek, 2022. "Internationalization of innovation and firm performance in the pharmaceutical industry," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 882-905.
    13. Figueiredo, Paulo N. & Larsen, Henrik & Hansen, Ulrich E., 2020. "The role of interactive learning in innovation capability building in multinational subsidiaries: A micro-level study of biotechnology in Brazil," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(6).
    14. Santiago-Rodriguez, Fernando, 2010. "Human resource management and learning for innovation: pharmaceuticals in Mexico," MERIT Working Papers 2010-002, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    15. Stephen Roper & Seamus Grimes, 2003. "Wireless Valley, Silicon Wadi and Digital Island - Helsinki, Tel Aviv and Dublin in the ICT Boom," ERSA conference papers ersa03p62, European Regional Science Association.
    16. James, M.J., 2001. "The global information infrastructure revisited," Other publications TiSEM 5194b56d-90d0-444b-9f0a-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    17. Lawrence Edwards & Volker Schoer, 2002. "Measures Of Competitiveness: A Dynamic Approach To South Africa'S Trade Performance In The 1990s," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 70(6), pages 1008-1046, September.
    18. Eric Rugraff, 2017. "A Patent Analysis Of Foreign Direct Innovative R&D Activities In Central Europe: The Czech Case," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(02), pages 1-28, February.
    19. Matolcsy, Zoltan & Wakefield, James, 2017. "Multinational headquarter control of wholly owned foreign subsidiaries," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 275-293.
    20. Archibugi, Daniele & Pietrobelli, Carlo, 1999. "The globalization of the financial markets and its effects on the emerging countries," Sede de la CEPAL en Santiago (Estudios e Investigaciones) 32989, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:apbizr:v:13:y:2007:i:3:p:425-449. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FAPB20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.