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Creative internationalization: widening the perspectives on analysis and policy regarding international R&D activities

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Abstract

Internationalization in R&D is further growing; it is changing its geographical balance, as it is shifting somewhat to the Far East, and its nature, increasing the global quest for talent and good research conditions as well as for low cost R&D. This paper focuses on the European perspective, i.e. it discusses current challenges Europe faces vis-à-vis trends in industrial R&D, but the findings and arguments are more general ones. It argues that our perspective on internationalization is still shaped too much by a zero sum-rationale, whereby one location wins R&D capacity that another location loses. It develops a cost–benefit matrix in order to capture the overall costs and benefits of international R&D activities more broadly. The paper argues that more creativity is needed, that our perspective needs to be broadened to tackle all variables conditioning international activities in R&D (including local conditions of demand and discourse) and to stress the importance of the absorption of global knowledge by as many actors within an innovation system as possible. On the basis of recent survey data the paper furthermore concludes that public research should be thought of as a trans-national transmission belt of knowledge and as the prime factor that shapes the attractiveness and effectiveness of a location for business R&D. Finally, it is argued that policy schemes geared towards international R&D need to accept and tackle the issue of co-ordination of governance and to take advantage of the flexible possibilities offered at the European level, beyond the logic of the European Framework Programme.

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Notes

  1. We do not discuss the sectoral differences in international activities and the consequences this has for attractiveness of locations, for such a discussion see Patel and Pavitt 2000; Edler 2004; Cantwell and Noonan 2001; most recent data is presented in UNCTAD 2005, indicating the highest rate of internationalization for chemistry and pharmaceuticals (p. 125).

  2. Europe also runs a deficit in the technology balance of payments, although this deficit has slightly decreased (OECD 2006, p. 130).

  3. From 1999 onwards, Eastern Europe only includes the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Russia.

  4. The UNCTAD report delivers some important updates on that issue, especially from the perspective of developing countries, see UNCTAD 2005, chapter V.

  5. Slightly different attempts have been done by Cirscuolo 2004, p. 3.

  6. The PRIME ERA Config project also discussed at the Pisa conference makes that point very clear, in fact the “configurations” emanating out of the peculiarities of knowledge areas also heavily impinge upon the need for and leverage of international activity and related policies. This is a major hypothesis of the Config Project.

  7. See Internationalization of Public Research in Germany. Study conducted on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research by Fraunhofer ISI, Germany, ZEW Germany, and Technopolis (Vienna/Amsterdam), see reference list for details on contributors (Edler et al. 2007).

  8. The China strategy of the German Fraunhofer Society is a case in point, one driver of the activities of the Society and their institutes there is to be where many of the clients go or will go in the future. This at the same time raises the attractiveness of Fraunhofer institutes as partners within Germany (Edler 2006).

  9. A German strategic paper is due in Summer 2007, the Finish strategy had been introduced to the OECD Forum on Internationalization of R&D in March 2005 by Jari Romanainen, Director of strategy, Tekes agency, Finland.

  10. For further examples see for instance a benchmarking analysis Edler and Boekholt 2001; Edler and Meyer-Krahmer 2003 or Gornitzka et al. 2003.

  11. See Edler and Boekholt 2001; Edler and Meyer-Krahmer 2003 or Gornitzka et al. 2003.

  12. 31 of these platforms have been established as of May 2006 (European Commission 2006) with a considerable number of participants from industry, research organisations, national ministries and other administrations, various Commission DGs and societal groups.

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Acknowledgements

This paper has been discussed in the workshop GlobPol financed by the Network of Excellence PRIME held in Vienna in May 2005. The author is grateful to this financial support and also to the discussants of this workshop for their valuable comments. Furthermore, an earlier version has been presented to the Annual Conference of PRIME in Pisa in January 2007. In that conference Lucia Piscitello has given very valuable comments and suggestions for improvement.

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  1. Professor of Innovation Policy and Strategy, Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Harold Hankins Building, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Jakob Edler

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Edler, J. Creative internationalization: widening the perspectives on analysis and policy regarding international R&D activities. J Technol Transfer 33, 337–352 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-007-9051-1

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