Offshore knowledge incubation: the "third path" for embedding R&D labs in foreign systems of innovation

Offshore knowledge incubation (OKI) denotes the effort by foreign R&D units of MNCs to achieve local embeddedness within the host-country R&D system, even at the expense of remaining detached from the rest of the MNC. An open-ended social interaction and learning process, OKI can be seen as a novel path of MNC subsidiary evolution. In a qualitative study of eight European "knowledge incubators," the concept was found to be useful for analyzing the adjustment in R&D strategies of Japanese firms venturing into basic research abroad and of U.S. information technology companies coping with the turbulent IT environment of the 1990s.