R&D in China: an empirical study of Taiwanese IT companies
基于56家台湾IT企业的调查，研究其在中国大陆进行研发国际化的动机、选址考虑和运营模式，发现获取人力资本是关键动因。
This study extends the research on R&D (research and development) internationalization to a new environmental context (two Asian newly‐industrialized economies, mainland China and Taiwan). Based on a survey of 56 major Taiwanese information technology (IT) companies, the status of R&D internationalization with Taiwan as the home and mainland China as the host is investigated. Human‐capital‐augmentation is found to be the key motive for Taiwanese IT companies to extend R&D activities to the mainland. Accessing capable yet cost effective local engineers with an additional benefit of geographical and linguistic proximity is the major context of this motive. The location decision is based on three considerations – access to engineers, proximity to manufacturing site, and competition avoidance. Finally, three operational patterns of conducting the international design and development (D&D) activities are categorized, which are ‘home‐base‐integration’, ‘host‐base‐integration’, and ‘product life cycle’.