Title: Innovation and location in the multinational firm

Authors: John Cantwell, Yanli Zhang

Addresses: Rutgers Business School, 111 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102, USA. ' School of Business, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the relationship between multinational corporations (MNCs) and local economic systems. It examines the implications of a decentralisation of innovative activity within MNCs for their interaction with local networks. It is shown that this interaction depends upon the type of cluster, whether a general centre of excellence or a specialised centre. These two principal kinds of cluster are associated with different structures of local knowledge spillovers between firms. Localised science-technology linkages offer a further category of interaction. It is shown how locational hierarchies may affect the locational strategies of MNCs when they disperse innovative activity.

Keywords: multinational corporations; MNCs; clusters; location hierarchies; knowledge spillovers; science-technology linkages; innovation; local networks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2011.038832

International Journal of Technology Management, 2011 Vol.54 No.1, pp.116 - 132

Published online: 06 Apr 2013 *

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