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Corporate Research
and Development (R&D) activities have hitherto, been mostly
confined to in-house R & D centers of companies in their home
countries. But in recent years, the necessity of multi-sourcing of
innovations has gained importance due to a variety of reasons,
such as:
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Intensified and globalized basis of international competition
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Increasing pressure to shorten international market penetration
times for new products, and ensuring the simultaneity of their
introduction on a global scale
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Increasing pressure to shorten R&D time-period and decreasing
market-life times for new products
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Increasing R&D intensity and costs
In addition, R&D in
high-technology industries such as: biotechnology,
microelectronics, pharmaceuticals, information technology and new
materials has become more science based and consequently, research
intensive.
 The
need to enhance competitiveness through R&D is leading
multinational corporations (MNCs) to direct their investments to
those geographical regions of the world which can best meet their
research and manpower needs. As a result, there is today an
enhanced R&D networking between major laboratories spread across
the globe not only within large multinational firms, but also
between the universities, research institutes, customers and
industry consortia.
Today, companies
from the United States, Japan and Europe conduct almost the
world's entire industrial R&D, and have dispersed their efforts
across the globe, especially over the last decade. With the
world's third-largest scientific and technical manpower, and
well-established R&D infrastructure in the form of national
laboratories and universities, India has been a beneficiary of
this emerging phenomenon of R&D globalization. We at the Shailesh
J Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM), IIT Bombay, have studied
this phenomenon within the wider context of globalization and
competitiveness of skill-based services.
Following the
stronger integration of R&D with business, and the consequent
weakening of the strategic position of corporate central
laboratories within large firms, there has been a growing tendency
for the networking of research between major laboratories within
large MNCs. Many of these firms have set up technical support
laboratories in various countries, so as to adapt existing
products or production processes to the local markets or
production environment.....more
on next page
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