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On the R&D giants' shoulders: Do FDI help to stand on them?

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The paper investigates the extent to which outward FDI affect the MNC's capacity of entering (and remaining in) the club of top R&D world investors, benefiting from performance gains in both financial and economic markets. By merging the European Industrial Research and Innovation Scoreboard with the fDi Markets dataset, we find supporting evidence. Increasing the number of FDI projects helps firms overcome the discontinuities that, in the distribution of R&D expenditures, separate the largest R&D investors from those below them. The same is true for the number of FDI projects in R&D, which are also more important than greater FDI portfolios in becoming a top R&D spender. Furthermore, unlike FDI in general, more FDI in R&D guarantee firms to remain in this top club of firms as it increases their capacity of competing among the top R&D spenders. Results at the extensive margin (i.e. the number of FDI projects) are confirmed with respect to the scale of FDI projects (i.e. at the intensive margin). However, increasing their size is not enough to become one of the highest ranking R&D firms. Policy implications about the support to R&D internationalisation are drawn accordingly.

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  • Antonio Vezzani & Sandro Montresor, 2014. "On the R&D giants' shoulders: Do FDI help to stand on them?," JRC Research Reports JRC88585, Joint Research Centre (Seville site).
  • Handle: RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc88585
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    1. Castellani, Davide & Montresor, Sandro & Schubert, Torben & Vezzani, Antonio, 2017. "Multinationality, R&D and productivity: Evidence from the top R&D investors worldwide," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 405-416.
    2. Francesco Di Comite & D'Artis Kancs & Wouter Torfs, 2015. "Macroeconomic Modelling of R&D and Innovation Policies," JRC Research Reports JRC89558, Joint Research Centre (Seville site).
    3. Ciriaci, Daria & Grassano, Nicola & Vezzani, Antonio, 2019. "Regulations and location choices of top R&D investors worldwide," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 29-42.
    4. Mafini Dosso & Paulina Ramirez, 2020. "Organization and geography of global R&D and innovation activities: insights from qualitative research on leading corporate R&D investors," JRC Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation 2020-03, Joint Research Centre (Seville site).

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    Keywords

    Foreign Direct Investments (FDI); Multinational Corporations (MNC); Research & Development (R&D);
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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