The crucial actors of a global knowledge-based economy are multinational
enterprises (MNEs). MNEs depend on the embeddedness in an institutional framework; their
competitive advantage depends on the cross-border utilisation of regional and national
capabilities. The innovativeness of a company is therefore based also on regional
innovation systems. Multinational Enterprises and Innovation contributes to a better
understanding of the interconnectedness between organisational and regional learning.
On the basis of case studies in Germany and France, this volume investigates
how MNEs cope with technical, economic and institutional uncertainties by drawing upon the
complementary strengths of organisational and regional networks in national and European
contexts. The book links two theoretical debates which are currently still largely
disconnected -- the debate on learning processes in MNEs and the debate on the regional
bases of innovativeness and competitiveness -- answering the question of how the
internationalisation of R&D is reconciled with regional competences.
Christoph Barmeyer is Professor of Intercultural Communication,
director of the Centre of Core Competences at the University of Passau, Germany and
affiliated professor at the research centre HuManiS (Humans and Management in Society,
EA1347) of EM Strasbourg/University Strasbourg (France).
Elisabeth Baier has studied economics in Gießen, Stirling and
Mannheim and works as scientific researcher in the Competence Center "Policy and
Regions" at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) in
Karlsruhe, Germany.
Martin Heidenreich is Jean-Monnet-Professor of European Studies in
Social Sciences and director of the Jean-Monnet Centre of Excellence on Europeanisation
and Transnational Regulations (CETRO) at the University of Oldenburg, Germany.
Knut Koschatzky is responsible for the Competence Center "Policy
and Regions" at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) in
Karlsruhe. Since 2005 he is Professor in Economic Geography at Leibniz University Hanover,
Germany.
Katharina Krüth studied Cultural Sciences in Frankfurt (Oder) and
Cracow and currently is a doctoral student at the University of Passau, Germany.
Jannika Mattes studied European Economic and Business Studies in
Bamberg and Granada and currently is researcher at the Jean-Monnet-Chair of European
Studies in Social Sciences at the University of Oldenburg, Germany.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: Regional Learning in Multinational Enterprises
2. Innovation in Multinational Enterprises: Between Organisational Control and
Social Embeddedness
3. The Methodological Approach
4. The Corporate Dimension of Innovation: An Interplay between Formalisation
and Flexibilisation, and Con¬Cen¬Tra¬Ti¬On and Dispersal
5. The Regional Embeddedness of Corporate Innovation
6. Regionalised Innovation Policies in Germany and France
7. Similarities and Differences of Leadership and Cooperation in German and
French Innovation Projects: A Contrastive Perspective
8. Patterns of Industrial R&D across Europe
9. A Multi-Territorial Approach To Corporate Innovation in MNEs - Concluding
Remarks
328 pages, Hardcover