Summary and Conclusions

The information reviewed in earlier chapters makes it clear that overseas R&D now plays an important role in a significant number of the world’s leading MNEs. Beyond the quantitative relevance of such R&D the work of earlier research suggests that the role played by these overseas facilities occupies a sufficiently high profile in many firms’ operations to be carefully articulated into particular forms which can be explained, in particular, by the other functions to which the unit is linked. Thus overseas R&D, far from being a residual or peripheral activity , now covers an heterogeneous range of activities designed to fulfil various clearly perceived objectives.