Next to Production or to Technological Clusters? The Economics and Management of R&D Location

This paper examines the relationshipbetween the location of R&D and productionactivities. By using a sample of 799 Japaneseinvestments in Europe, it distinguishes betweenaffiliates performing only R&D, bothR&D and production, and productiononly. The analysis produces two main results.First, R&D tends to locate close to productionactivities. Interestingly, however, the higherthe science-intensity of a sector, the lessimportant is the linkage with production. Thisis interpreted as the effect produced by moregeneral and transferable scientific work,compared to applied work. Second, by performinga multinomial logit analysis, we show that R&Dactivities, independent or linked toproduction, are attracted by different localfactors. Specifically, geographical proximityto the local science base is an importantfactor for locating only R&Dlaboratories compared to R&D andproduction, and production only. Firmand sector-specific characteristics also affectthe probability of setting up an independentR&D affiliate. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002