A New Geography of Innovation—China and India Rising

Abstract

With some delay, the internationalization of business research and development (R&D) is following the globalization of production. Starting on a small scale during the 1970s and 1980s, the emergence of globally distributed R&D networks of multinational enterprises (MNEs) accelerated rapidly in the 1990s. This paper analyzes the ways in which the “globalization of innovation” was facilitated and driven by a complex set of factors, including changes in trade and investment governance, improved intellectual property rights through the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, the growing ease and falling cost of communicating and traveling around the globe, and the concomitant vertical industry specialization and unbundling of value chains.

Key words:

• multinational enterprises
• research and development
• foreign direct investment
• development
• policy

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gert Bruche

After completing a degree in Engineering and a Doctorate in Economics and Social Sciences (Dipl.-Ing, 1971, Dr. rer. pol., 1976), Dr. Gert Bruche worked for almost twenty years with the United Nations in Ankara, Turkey, and with Schering AG (Strategy Advisor to the Board, Managing Director for Schering's China operations in Hong Kong, and Director of Strategic Marketing). In 1994, he joined the Berlin School of Economics as a Professor of International Management. Between 2004 and 2008, he served as the School's Dean and Vice President and as a consultant and Director of Management Training Programs in the Asia-Pacific Region.