Looking into the Innovation Process: How International Is Innovation in Multinational Companies?

Multinational companies (MNCs) have an international reach by definition. They combine components which are manufactured in far-away countries, they produce in manifold subsidiaries set up and dispersed around the globe, and they serve the world market. Research, development and innovation follow suit and take place in dispersed settings where cost of space and time is negligible. The fact that foreign direct investment (FDI) amounted to US$ 1.24 trillion in 2010 shows how internationalised our modern economy is, especially if we take into account that this FDI turnover had been even higher before the economic downturn (UNCTAD, 2011). It seems logical to conclude that space is getting more and more irrelevant, or, to phrase it differently, ‘the world is fat’ and geography is dead (Ohmae, 1990; Friedman, 2006).