The local/global integration of MNC subsidiaries and their technological behaviour: Argentina in the late 1990s

Abstract

A growing number of studies suggest that only innovative subsidiaries generate positive technological effects in host countries. In this context, this paper explores the variability in the intensity of innovative activity across MNC subsidiaries within a late-industrialising host economy in connection with two factors: the subsidiaries’ functional integration within (a) their global corporations and (b) their host economy. We found that the more innovative subsidiaries were those that enjoy integration to both the local economy and their global corporation. However, they represented a small proportion of all subsidiaries, most of which were disconnected from both their global corporation and the local economy. We also found that, in common with some findings in advanced country contexts, but in contrast to common expectations in industrialising economies, subsidiaries that were strongly integrated into their parent corporations undertook more, not less, intensive innovative activity than those that were well integrated into the host economy.