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International R&D Deployment and Locational Advantage: A Case Study of Taiwan

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  • Meng-Chun Liu
  • Shin-Horng Chen

Abstract

Although it is evident that R&D has undergone a process of internationalization, and that the less-advanced economies are becoming increasingly involved in this process, the substantial body of literature in this area has been based largely on the experiences of the developed countries. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of this issue by examining R&D internationalization within a newly-industrializing economy, a prime example of which is Taiwan, and focuses especially on factors underlying locational advantage in attracting multinationals' offshore R&D. We begin with an examination of the literature on R&D internationalization and globalization, based upon which we emphasize the significance of first-tier supplier advantage' in a Taiwanese context. We take advantage of an official database to reveal the patterns of foreign corporate R&D in Taiwan and to systematically examine the determinants of the R&D intensity of foreign affiliates at industry level. Our empirical results show that within Taiwan, foreign affiliates with higher R&D intensity tend to be more export oriented, are localized within Taiwan in terms of their sourcing of materials and capital goods, and belong to sectors with a larger pool of R&D labor.

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  • Meng-Chun Liu & Shin-Horng Chen, 2003. "International R&D Deployment and Locational Advantage: A Case Study of Taiwan," NBER Working Papers 10169, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10169
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    Cited by:

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    2. Neil Foster-McGregor, 2012. "Innovation and Technology Transfer across Countries," wiiw Research Reports 380, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    3. Pradhan, Jaya Prakash, 2011. "Regional heterogeneity and firms’ innovation: the role of regional factors in industrial R&D in India," MPRA Paper 28096, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

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