Global localization? Japanese research and development laboratories in the USA

In this paper the manufacturing strategies underlying the growing number of Japanese research and development (R&D) laboratories in the United States are examined. In particular, we assess the extent to which Japanese R&D in the United States is consistent with a model of global localization. The analysis is based upon data collected by a mailed questionnaire survey and through interviews with the directors of Japanese R&D laboratories. In its basic form, global localization is a manufacturing strategy that seeks to promote the emergence of an integrated manufacturing complex and attendant technology-development capability within North America and other major markets. In the case of Japanese automobile firms, close ties are observed between R&D and production facilities in the United States. In computers, electronics, and other industries, however, the principal linkage of R&D laboratories in the United States is to R&D laboratories in Japan. Divisional R&D laboratories in Japan remain the anchor for emerging international technology-development networks.