Technological globalisation and innovative centres: the role of corporate technological leadership and locational hierarchy

Abstract

This paper examines two related propositions. First, that multinational corporations (MNCs) emanating from the most important locations in their industry are more likely to evolve towards technological strategies of geographically differentiating their innovative activities abroad. Second, that MNCs originating from weaker centres in the same industry tend rather to evolve towards a strategy of replicating in the profile of their technological development abroad the pattern of their home country specialisation. Using data on patents granted in the US to the largest European-owned firms for research carried out in European locations, the results from cluster analysis and from multiple linear regressions give broad support to these propositions.