Research and Development Collaborations

In today's rapidly changing business world Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) look for local partner firms in different countries to make R&D collaborations. In this book important factors affecting R&D collaborations were found as production innovation & R&D capabilities and then absorptive capacity of the Turkish automotive companies. The main R&D policy of the MNE (criteria for possible R&D collaboration openness to R&D collaboration and strategic goals) was found as an important factor affecting MNE's R&D location decisions. Another factor competition between other R&D departments in different countries and other R&D department's competency were found as moderate level of importance. R&D Managers of Fiat Ford and Hyundai found the Turkish government's R&D incentives very attractive and found that Turkey's infrastructure socio-economic conditions and cheap but skilled labor force were appropriate for undertaking R&D collaborations. Social factors (mutual trust level of commitment and cultural conflicts) were found to be an important influence in MNE's R&D location decisions.