Multinational Enterprises in Regional Innovation Processes

This book is positioned at the interface of research in economic geography and strategic management, combining topics like intangible assets (IAs), Open Innovation strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs), and Regional Innovation Systems (RIS). A micro-approach to analyzing the innovation behavior of nine MNEs in two advanced European economies, Germany and the UK, was applied, which has revealed key channels through which IAs are enhanced in the innovation processes of multinationals and has described their spatial roots and impact. Moreover, the study presents a novel matrix of the regional embeddedness of MNEs and systematically classifies the case study firms. Finally, it shows that geographical proximity to RIS is important for Open Innovation and enables MNEs to strengthen their absorptive capacity.

Autorentext

Jan-Philipp Kramer, born 1981 in Neuss (Germany); Studies of Economic Geography, Business and Law at the University of Kiel, the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Hannover; from 2008-2011 PhD-Student and Research Associate at the Institute of Economic and Cultural Geography in Hannover and Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley (USA).

Inhalt

Contents: Intangible Assets, Multinational Enterprises and Regional Innovation Capacity: Theoretical Foundations Open Innovation and Regional Innovation Systems: An Economic Geography Perspective Regional Embeddedness of Multinational Enterprises in Regional Innovation Systems in Germany and the UK Spatial Configuration of SAP s Open Innovation Strategy and Localized Learning in the RIS of Baden-Württemberg.