Internationalisation of research and development: the case of Taiwanese firms

Most of the previous studies in global R&D were focused on developed economies, meaning the situation of developing countries has been neglected. Consequently, this work conducts a deep case study of eight Taiwanese companies with overseas R&D units. The sample companies came mainly from two industrial sectors: computer hardware and software. Preliminary research findings include the following: (1) firms in developing countries seem all to follow a similar path in internationalising their R&D activities, (2) companies from developed and developing countries appear to have the same motivations and use the similar methods in globalising their R&D, (3) communication and managerial process of global innovation differ for hardware and software product developments and (4) problems of communication, language and cultural difference critically affect the performance of global R&D and can be reduced by employing standard manuals, a unified language and international liaisons.