LOCALIZED PRODUCTION OF TECHNOLOGY FOR GLOBAL MARKETS

Given the trends towards increasing globalisation of markets and of production, the globalisation of technology remains a subject of considerable interest to analysts and policy makers in the 1990s. The main conclusion of this paper is that there is no systematic evidence to suggest that widespread globalisation of technological activities occurred in the 1980s. The evidence, based on the US patenting activities of 569 of the world's largest firms (based in 13 countries, and covering 17 product groups), shows that for an overwhelming majority of them technology production remains close to the home base. The analysis also shows the dangers of generalising on the basis of anecdotal evidence from a small sample of firms from a particular country or sector.