The Knowledge Seeking Firm - Innovation, Strategy and Performance of Technology oriented MNCs

Within MNCs, the traditional role of headquarters as prime source of knowledge and competencies is changing. Increasingly, headquarters act as a receiver of knowledge from their internationally dispersed subsidiaries. Offshore R&D centres, traditionally aiming to exploit corporate capabilities, become focal actors in the firms’ knowledge creation process. The goal of the present research project is to advance the current state of academic research along several lines. Employing a longitudinal design, the interplay of strategy and structure will be tracked and evaluated over time. Furthermore, the envisaged research design will enable us to draw interferences on the system level, e.g. shed light on the ‘optimal’ configurations of international dispersed innovation processes.