Culture matters to multinationals’ intellectual property businesses

Yang, Deli

doi:10.1016/j.jwb.2005.05.005

Cited by 37 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…As for international R&D centres, liabilities of foreignness can be too much trust in formal contracts or local R&D partners, the disrespect of the foreign culture and business etiquette which can result in the loss of authority and resignations of important employees. In certain countries, contracts are rather based on personal relationships and the respect of intellectual properties and their legal enforcement is not that embedded (Yang, 2005). The costs from firms' foreignness also comprise the loss of IP to competitors abroad when they have not taken appropriate measures to protect them.…”

Section: Liabilities Of Foreignnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intellectual Property Infringements Due to R&D Abroad? A Comparative Analysis Between Firms with International and Domestic R&D Activities

Schmiele

2010

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp10099.pdf Non-technical SummaryBy internationalising R&D activities, firms can improve their chances to respond to local demands and benefit from local knowledge globally. However, differences in culture and the legal system can challenge firms and lead to higher costs. Furthermore R&D activities abroad are often considered to cause IPR infringements, especially in the case of weak intellectual property protection systems. This paper aims at analysing whether firms with international R&D activities are confronted with a higher risk of intellectual property infringements (IPR) than firms with domestic innovation processes only. The paper differentiates between specific types of infringements: the usage of firms' technical inventions, product piracy and copying of corporate names and designs. The analysis is based both on a qualitative explorative study which consists of six interviews, involving five German companies active in China and aGerman legal advisor for intellectual property protection as well as on an empirical study. The empirical study is based on the data of the Mannheimer Innovation Panel (MIP).The explorative study showed that the involved firms disbelieve that R&D activities in China increase the risk of IP infringements, that they all entered the Chinese market with well prepared IP protection and despite the fact that they were all facing IP infringements, these cases turned out to be manageable. The results of the empirical analysis indicate that international innovation activities lead to a higher risk of infringements of technological knowledge. However, firms whose R&D activities are only based in their home countries face an increased risk of product piracy. By differentiating between host countries with weak and strong intellectual property rights, it has been found the effects from both kinds of countries do not vary from each other. A larger scope of innovation processes abroad also causes a higher likelihood of infringements from countries in which the firms innovate abroad.Infringements from countries where the firms do not operate R&D activities are driven by the export intensity of the firm. Das Wichtigste in Kürze AbstractThis paper aims at analysing the risk of intellectual property (IP) infringements by competitors from abroad and in particular whether this risk is higher for international innovating firms. We distinguish three different type...

show abstract

Section: Liabilities Of Foreignnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intellectual Property Infringements Due to R&D Abroad? A Comparative Analysis Between Firms with International and Domestic R&D Activities

Schmiele

2010

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Therefore, liabilities of foreignness, as for example too much trust in formal contracts or local R&D partners, are supposedly affecting the performance of firms with international R&D activities. In certain countries contracts are rather based on personal relationships and the respect of intellectual properties and their legal enforcement is not that embedded (Yang, 2005). The more the host country's culture differs from the culture of the firm's home country the higher these costs might be.…”

Section: Costs Of International Randd Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Contribution of International R&D to Firm Profitability

Peters

Schmiele

2011

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp11002.pdf Non-Technical SummaryIncreased globalisation and competition caused more and more firms to relocate part of their R&D activities to foreign countries. This recent trend towards the internationalisation of R&D is motivated by expected gains through a better access to new knowledge, markets and more efficient production technologies. On the other hand, additional costs, e.g. for organising and coordinating dispersed activities, arise from the decentralisation of corporate R&D.Up to now, the empirical literature provides no evidence whether benefits do outweigh the financial and organisational costs of these international ventures. This research tries to fill this gap. Thus, the main question this paper tries to answer is whether international R&D activities increase firms' future profitability.In order to shed light on the relationship between international R&D activities and firm's profitability, we compare firms that have both domestic and international R&D with firms that perform R&D only at the home country as well as with firms that do not carry out own R&D activities. Since the internationalisation of R&D is a growing phenomenon in a sense that not only more firms are going abroad but that also the number of foreign R&D centres has raised for many firms, we furthermore evaluate how the degree of internationalisation affects profitability. The degree of internationalisation is measured by the number of countries in which a firm performs R&D abroad.Our research makes use of information that is provided within the Mannheim Innovation Panel (MIP). The MIP is the official annual innovation survey among German firms, and it is the German contribution to the European-wide harmonised Community Innovation Surveys (CIS). Based on more than 1300 observations, we first of all find that firms performing R&D in year 2005 make significantly higher profits in future years than firms without innovation activities. However, the stimulating effect on profitability is about twice as high for firms with domestic and foreign R&D compared to firms that perform R&D only in their home country.We can therefore conclude that firms which innovate globally are not only able to realise the benefits of these international ventures but that they are also able to limit the costs and risks.We furthermore provide evidence that firms with internationally more dispersed R&D operations achieve high...

show abstract

“…Others focused on specific aspects of operations in China such as negotiations with Chinese managers (Ghauri & Fang, 2001;Shi, 2001a), accumulating experience and capability building (Gao, Pan, Lu, & Tao, 2008a;Luo, 2002f), local responsiveness and resource commitment (Fryxell, Butler, & Choi, 2004;Luo, 2001bLuo, , 2004, and the management of expatriate and local personnel (Gamble, 2006a, Law, Tse, & Zhou, 2003Peng & Beamish, 2007;Zhang, George, & Chan, 2006). Specific local strategies and tactics have been examined as well, such as local sourcing practices (Brookfield & Liu, 2005), anti-piracy strategy and IP protection (McGaughey, Liesch, & Poulson, 2000;Yang, 2005;Yang, Fryxell, & Sie, 2008), and local environmental protection policy (Child & Tsai, 2005). Luo (2007b) emphasized China's shifting competitive and regulatory environments, and the changes in the dominant strategies adopted by MNEs in China that resulted.…”

Section: Strategic Alliances/networkmentioning

confidence: 99%