New concepts and trends in international R&D organization

Abstract

The globalization of markets, the regionalization of technical and scientific expertise, and the rapid change in technologies are forcing technology-based companies to continuously adjust their R&D organization. Our study of 33 companies reveals five different types of R&D organization in multinational companies (MNC). We classified R&D organizations according to the dispersion of R&D activities and the degree of cooperation between individual R&D units and identified the ethnocentric centralized, the geocentric centralized, the polycentric decentralized, the R&D hub, and the integrated R&D network organization. Five trends of organizational change among these forms of international R&D organization were identified: (1) Stronger orientation of R&D activities towards international markets and knowledge centers, (2) Establishment of tightly coordinated listening posts, (3) Strengthening and reinforcement of foreign R&D sites, (4) Increased integration of decentralized R&D units, and (5) Tighter coordination and recentralization of R&D activities at fewer know-how centers. The search for the optimal balance between coordination and control is reflected by hybrid structures and intermediary configurations detected in some of the investigated companies. Since effective changes in behavioral orientation require considerable time, successful quantum leaps in multinational R&D organization are next to impossible.