John Cantwell

Professor Cantwell welcomes applications to the PhD program in International Business by well-qualified candidates that wish to work in the area of technological innovation in multinational corporations.

Publications with PhD Students and Alumni:

"La estrategia tecnológica de las empresas multinacionales y el desarrollo de capacidades tecnológicas locales" (with Katherina Glac), Cuadernos de Economía y Dirección de la Empresa, Vol. 20, No. 3, July-September 2004, pp. 83-101.

"TNCs, locational clustering and the process of economic development" (with Katherina Glac), in L. Cuyvers and F. De Beule (Eds.), Transnational Corporations and Economic Development: From Internationalisation to Globalisation, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp. 84-101.

"The internationalization of R&D - the Swiss case" (with Katherina Glac and R. Harding), Management International Review, Vol. 44, Special Issue No. 3, 2004, pp. 57-82.

"Knowledge and organisation in the theory of the firm or MNC" (with Helena Barnard), Journal of Management and Governance, Vol. 10, 2006, forthcoming.

"Why is Japan's R&D internationalization so low?" (with Yanli Zhang), Asian Business and Management, Vol. 5, 2006, forthcoming.

"Japan's R&D internationalization and its institutional environment" (with Yanli Zhang), in M.J. Oesterle and J. Wolf (Eds.), Internationalization and Institutions, Berlin: Springer, 2006, forthcoming.

"A statistical analysis of corporate technological leadership historically" (with Birgitte Andersen), Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Vol. 4, No. 3, Summer 1996, pp. 211-234.

"Changing patterns of technological leadership: evidence from the pharmaceutical industry" (with Astrid Bachmann), International Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 2, No. 1, March 1998, pp. 45-77.

"Technological globalisation and innovative centres: the role of corporate technological leadership and locational hierarchy" (with Odile Janne), Research Policy, Vol. 28, Nos. 2-3, 1999, pp. 119-144.

"Firms as the source of innovation and growth: the evolution of technological competence" (with Felicia Fai), Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Vol. 9, No. 3, 1999, pp. 331-366.

"The new geography of corporate research in information and communications technology" (with Grazia Santangelo), Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2002, pp. 163-197.

"Historical evolution of technological diversification" (With Giovanna Vertova), Research Policy, Vol. 33, No. 3, 2004, pp. 511-529.

Dissertation Proposals of Current PhD Students:

Name: Kwaku Ampadu-Nyarkoh
Proposal Defended: 2005/December
Proposal Title: The geography of knowledge sourcing by MNC subsidiaries, with special reference to the pharmaceutical industry

Dissertation Proposal Abstract: Multinational Corporations (MNCs) are increasingly adopting internationally integrated systems of knowledge creation. Historically, MNCs have concentrated their most creative new competence-generating R&D operations within the parent firm in the home country. The decentralization of research activity in MNCs was directed primarily to the competence-exploiting activity associated with the local adaptation of products and processes. However, since the mid-1980s large MNCs have been continuously expanding some aspects of competence-creating R&D across international borders by establishing global networks of creative subsidiaries that in turn are embedded in their own local networks. Through subsidiaries MNCs are able to tap into foreign knowledge bases by networking with the local firms and non profit research institutions in centers of technological excellence. The challenge facing the parent firm is to manage the interdependence of highly complex technological activities between network participants to ensure proper coordination for increased innovation. Despite widespread theoretical interest in this phenomenon, progress on empirical research on subsidiary innovation and knowledge-seeking FDI has left many unanswered questions about the geography of knowledge sourcing.

This study seeks to examine the international knowledge sourcing activity of foreign-owned subsidiaries in the pharmaceutical industry in the United States. The primary focus of this research is an investigation of the determinants of local and more distant knowledge sourcing activities by MNC subsidiaries in the pharmaceutical industry. This study explores the geographic origins of the knowledge sources employed by foreign-owned subsidiaries in the process of technological innovation. The main data source of this study is patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to the sample firms, and a case study of a selected subset of these firms. The hypotheses will be tested by analyzing the geographic and institutional origins of patent citations of foreign-owned subsidiaries in the pharmaceutical industry for their R&D activity in the United States.

Name: Helena Barnard
Proposal Defended: 2005/May
Proposal Title: Created asset seeking among developing country firms: Exploring investment from less to more developed countries

Dissertation Proposal Abstract: Firms from developing countries are increasingly investing in the developed world, but there has not yet been a large-scale study to examine the impact of such investments on the home country. This study examines to what extent investment from less to more developed countries acts as a mechanism to access and learn from the technologically richer environment (or “created assets”) of developed host countries. It argues that investment from less to more developed countries can be described as a strategy for the industrial upgrading of the less developed home country if three interrelated processes take place.

First, there must be a sustained increase in outbound foreign direct investment from less to more developed countries. UNCTAD data for the past 20 years, and a meta-analysis of the 12 editions of Uniworld’s Directory of Foreign Businesses Operating in the US are used as evidence of the destination of developing countries’ foreign direct investment.

Second, developing country firms must succeed in expanding their capabilities through their presence in the developed world. A mail survey is conducted of all US-based subsidiaries of developing country firms, using the Directory of Foreign Businesses Operating in the US database. The survey explores how developing country subsidiaries perceive their host environment – e.g. whether the US is a source of both resources (e.g. specialist suppliers or a skilled workforce) and pressures (e.g. higher labor costs or more demanding customers) – and to what extent developing country subsidiaries manage to get access to the created assets of the US. The survey is supplemented by qualitative interviews of a subset of the polled firms to investigate how subsidiaries gain (or not) access to resources in the US.

Finally, the newly developed capabilities must be shared with the parent organization in the less developed country in order to contribute to the industrial upgrading of that country. This process is also investigated with data from the subsidiary mail survey, but complemented with an additional electronic survey of the parent organizations to determine how, why and how much of the newly developed capabilities are shared with the parent organizations in the less developed countries.

Name: Qiang Xu
Proposal Defended: 2004/February
Proposal Title: Multinational Corporations & Local Science Base

Dissertation Proposal Abstract: Globalization and technological advancement in recent decades have created enormous pressure and opportunity for firms to innovate and to develop their technological capabilities. Recent literature of international business research has been commenting on this trend and emphasizing the changing objectives and strategies of multinational corporations (MNCs) that complement, if not displacing the traditional rational of their international operations. The resource-seeking or more directly, competence-creating view of multinational corporations proposes that by strategically allocating their production and research facilities overseas, MNCs are able to benefit from different paths of technological development, hence having significant technological and competitive advantages over their competitors. Empirical researches have gathered growing amount of evidence and new insight into the organizational and strategic implications of this process.

However, existing researches typically concentrate on the development of corporate technologies and technology flows between them, and with some exceptions, largely ignored the role of public science base in the development of corporate technology, which is an integral part of the innovation system that shapes the technological profile of a country or region. The proposed research is an attempt to close this gap. It will be a direct examination of the technological linkages between MNCs and the science base, comprising mainly of universities, government and other non-profit research institutes, of the local country in which they operate. The research draws upon the literature about both the technological activities of MNCs and the technological linkages between science and industry, and will focus on the study of patents citations made by major multinational corporations to the patents granted to major US universities, governmental and other public research facilities. The objective is to find geographical and sectoral patterns of such linkages, and their relationship with certain characteristics of the MNCs themselves, particularly their technological specializations and strength, location and duration of operation in the location.

Name: Yanli Zhang
Proposal Defended: 2005/July
Proposal Title: International Business, Domestic Network and the Evolution of Corporate Technological Profiles of Japanese Companies

Dissertation Proposal Abstract: Although much has been written on Japan's amazing technological catch up experience during the 20th century, this dissertation study focuses on just one aspect of that catch up experience and its aftermath that until now has been little explored. That is, the proposed study examines the threefold interaction between (i) the corporate technological development paths of the largest Japanese industrial companies, (ii) the role of learning by these firms from international business (IB) activities and (iii) the domestic inter-firm keiretsu networks between Japanese firms. It is intended to examine whether and if so how the inward IB spillovers to Japanese firms have contributed to the successful evolution and diversification of their profiles of corporate technological capabilities, and also how these technological development paths have been much influenced by Japan's own institutional context, most notably by its strong inter-firm networks. The analysis is based on an evolutionary approach to the paths of technological learning, as reflected in the largest Japanese firms, with particular reference to those in the electrical equipment and motor vehicle industries.

The study will be based upon the US patent records of the largest Japanese firms since 1969, and on some selected case study evidence on two companies, namely Toshiba and Toyota. The patent profiles of firms across technological fields are used as a proxy for the patterns of technological capabilities of firms, by constructing an index of technological specialization for each company relative to other large firms in the same industry. The central research question that will be examined is whether the keiretsu network in the past helped to promote the effective upgrading and diversification of technological capabilities based in part upon learning from international business and the transfer of foreign technology; but conversely, whether since the 1980s the keiretsu system has instead constrained the engagement of Japanese firms in the newer international networks for innovation, and has been associated with an over-diversification in their home base.