Global Research Strategy and International Competitiveness

Research and development holds the key to longterm competitive success in high-technology industries. Much of the world's corporate R&D is undertaken by a relatively small number of very large firms which are increasingly footloose in where they locate their R&D. For example, a Swiss pharmaceutical firm undertakes basic research in the UK and concentrates its product development work in the US. Increasing numbers of US firms locate laboratories in Canada to tap local scientific labour markets there. The Japanese are doing more basic research than in the past, and are building laboratories in the West to tap into selected centres of excellence. In the long run those countries that build up a critical mass of researchers in new-generation technologies will do best. This book provides evidence on these trends. It uses unique sources of information, including statistics on the origination of patents by overseas corporate laboratories, and analyzes some 300 responses to a detailed questionnaire addressed to R&D managers of major firms.