Large Firms in the Production of the World’s Technology: An Important Case of “Non-Globalisation”

US patenting by 686 of the world's largest manufacturing firms shows that their share of the world's production of technology is less than their share of R&D activities, and varies greatly amongst sectors. In most cases, the technological activities of these large firms are concentrated in their home country, the characteristics of which influence the volume and trends in their technological activities much more strongly then the international component of these activities. At the same time, these large firms are major elements in the volume and the pattern of sectoral specializations in their home countries' technological activities.© 1991 JIBS. Journal of International Business Studies (1991) 22, 1–21