Innovation Collaborations of Firms: the Case of Hungarian Multinational Companies

Abstract

1Multinational companies (MNCs) are geographically widespread production networks that can coordinate operations and activities in more than one country. MNCs transfer innovations, expertise, knowledge and advanced technologies to their host countries through their subsidiaries. Therefore, multinational companies are seen as transfer intermediaries distributing international technologies and innovations. MNCs help to bridge the existing technology gap between developed and developing countries. Due to the multilocation nature of MNCs, the study aims to examine the various drivers that influence Hungarian MNCs' R&D collaborations, making them choose to collaborate either with local partners or with partners in the countries of their headquarters. The paper reports on the preliminary findings of an on-going comparative research focused on understanding the key drivers of innovations and competitiveness in Hungary. For our empirical analysis, drawing on data from the Eurostat's harmonized Community Innovation Survey 2010-2012, we used the probit regression model. Since many studies have shown that innovation processes in companies are based on the same principles or similar framework, it is possible to generalize the results of the analysed data and successfully put the recommendations into practice. Our analysis provided mixed results; it has demonstrated that marketing orientations, expenditures devoted to research and development, absorptive capacity, firm size as well as funding support provided to Hungarian MNCs influenced their choice of collaborating partners. Hungarian MNCs were highly probable to collaborate with both local and foreign partners in the enterprise group, while preferring to cooperate with local universities rather than foreign ones.

Evaluating the determinative factors driving patents and foreign technologies acquisitions in Visegrád countries

“…For instance, the existing favourable loan policies such as the Hungary Enterprise Promotion Loan Programme scheme, the technological and preferential credit schemes in Poland and the Micro-loan Programme in Slovakia could further be used to support firms to acquire these innovative tools through international technological linkages. They can be used to address the problems of access to capital, which usually affects small and medium-sized companies (Odei et al , 2020b). Another policy implication from the result is that governments should support innovations by subsidising R&D activities and directly get involved in securing foreign technology licences and quality certificates for firms.…”

Management Model Of Balanced Scorecard

“…In relation to cluster-forming enterprises, the balanced scorecard concept allows us to determine the prospects of the performance of business processes and the exposure of cluster life cycle factors to economic risks (Benson, 2016;Koshovets, 2019;Mardas, 2007). In the conditions of a stagnant economy, the life cycle factors of industrial production cannot be corresponded with the generally accepted model (Odei et al, 2020). They should be constantly taken into account as part of the projections of the balanced scorecard to reflect the cyclical development of the innovation and digital cluster system.…”

Determining factors for U-I cooperation: a European study

“…Local/regional government funds influence companies' cooperation (Junior and Odei, 2018;Odei et al, 2020). There is also a positive effect of central government funds (Rõigas et al, 2018) IJIS 15,4 and EU funds on the cooperation with universities (Odei et al, 2020;Rõigas et al, 2018;Segarra-Blasco and Arauzo-Carod, 2008). Access to these incentives increases the likelihood that companies will cooperate with national and foreign universities (Rõigas et al, 2018).…”

“…The governments should focus their public policies on promoting U–I cooperation (Segarra-Blasco and Arauzo-Carod, 2008) because they positively influence new products and innovation (Odei et al , 2020). Financial support from the national government and the EU can be an additional factor for developing U–I cooperation.…”

“…Local/regional government funds influence companies' cooperation (Junior and Odei, 2018; Odei et al , 2020). There is also a positive effect of central government funds (Rõigas et al , 2018) and EU funds on the cooperation with universities (Odei et al , 2020; Rõigas et al , 2018; Segarra-Blasco and Arauzo-Carod, 2008). Access to these incentives increases the likelihood that companies will cooperate with national and foreign universities (Rõigas et al , 2018).…”