Review and Prospect of the Research on Overseas R&D Investment of MNEs and Subsidiary Performance

Abstract

In recent years, as globalized R&D activities have been launched on a large scale, more and more scholars have started to study overseas investment activities, but most of the research perspectives only focus on overseas investment entry methods, investment motives, and less on the study of reverse technology spillover of overseas R&D investment and the relationship with parent company innovation performance. Unlike overseas investment, overseas R&D investment is based on the knowledge base view, which considers knowledge as an important resource for enterprises, and tacit knowledge that is not easily understood and difficult to be expressed plays a key role in creating competitive advantage for enterprises. The dissemination of tacit knowledge is based on face-to-face interactions between individuals or organizations, and overseas R&D allows R&D activities to be geographically close to overseas markets and host country environments, thus enabling the transfer of home country knowledge and the acquisition of local knowledge. This study focuses on the motivation of overseas R&D investment, reverse technology spillover and relationship with parent company performance, and discusses future research directions.