World Investment Report--CHAPTERIV R&D BY TNCS AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES（PDF 39）

TNCs are playing a major role in global
R&D, not only through activities in their home
countries but also increasingly abroad. The
internationalization of R&D is not a new
phenomenon. What is new is its faster pace in
recent years and its spread to developing
countries (albeit to only a few, mainly in Asia).
Moreover, R&D activities in developing countries
are no longer aimed at adapting technologies to
local conditions only; they increasingly involve
“innovative” R&D, including developing
technologies for regional and world markets. At
the same time, TNCs from developing countries
are themselves investing in R&D abroad,
primarily in order to access advanced
technologies and research capabilities in
developed countries, as well as to adapt products
to new markets and tap sources of specialized
expertise in other developing countries. This
chapter maps these trends.
A. TNCs are dominant
R&D players
TNCs account for a major share of global
R&D. Indeed, with $310 billion spent in 2002
(United Kingdom, DTI 2004), the 700 largest
R&D spending firms of the world – of which at
least 98% are TNCs1 – accounted for close to half
(46%) of the world’s total R&D expenditure and
more than two-thirds (69%) of the world’s
business R&D (annex table A.III.2).2 Given that
there are an estimated 70,000 TNCs in the world
(annex table A.I.8), this is a conservative
estimate. It confirms earlier findings that in the
mid-1990s TNCs already accounted for a very
large share of the R&D expenditure of the Triad
(Gassmann and von Zedtwitz 1999).
..............................