Innovation and Institutional Embeddedness of Multinational Companies

Edited by Martin Heidenreich, University of Oldenburg, Germany

• Contents:1. Introduction: The Debate on Corporate EmbeddednessMartin HeidenreichPART I: CHALLENGES AND VARIETIES OF CORPORATE EMBEDDEDNESS2. Regional Embeddedness of Multinational Companies and their Limits:A TypologyMartin Heidenreich and Jannika Mattes3. The Multi-home-based Corporation: Solving an Insider–Outsider DilemmaÖrjan Sölvell4. MNCs between the Local and the Global: Knowledge Bases, Proximity and Distributed Knowledge NetworksBjørn T. Asheim, Bernd Ebersberger and Sverre J. Herstad 5. MNCs, Clusters and Varieties of Innovative Impulse Philip CookePART II: KNOWLEDGE INFRASTRUCTURES AS EMBEDDING DEVICES6. Simulating the Role of MNCs for Knowledge and Capital Dynamics in Networks of Innovation Petra Ahrweiler, Michel Schilperoord, Nigel Gilbert and Andreas Pyka7. Technological Capabilities and the Regional Embeddedness of Multinational Enterprises. A Case Study of Germany and the UKSimona Iammarino, Jan-Philipp Kramer, Elisabetta Marinelli and Javier Revilla Diez8. The Organizational Decomposition of Innovation and Territorial Knowledge Dynamics: Insights from the German Software Industry Simone Strambach and Benjamin Klement9. The Impact of Regional Institutional Characteristics on the Location of MNCs – a European PerspectiveKnut Koschatzky and Elisabeth BaierPART III: THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONSTRUCTION OF CORPORATE EMBEDDEDNESS10. Modes of Regional Embeddedness: Companies in Seven European Regions Compared Dieter Rehfeld11. The Pôles de Compétitivité: Regional Innovation Clusters with a French TouchChristoph Barmeyer and Katharina Krüth12. Multinational Companies and the Production of Collective Goods in Central and Eastern EuropeBob Hancké13. The Role of Multinational Corporations in the National Innovation Systems of the EU New Member States Rajneesh Narula and José Guimón14. Conclusion: Corporate Embeddedness as a Strategic and Dynamic Process of Skilled ActorsJannika Mattes and Martin Heidenreich Index

’This wonderful volume brings together contributions mainly from the innovation literature, whose findings are in a sense quite familiar, but which in this collection are juxtaposed in such a way as to highlight their common institutional underpinnings. This is very much due to the efforts of the editor, whose insightful introduction and editorial vision brings out several interesting and emerging themes from this collection of papers. I think this volume breaks new ground in highlighting the embeddedness of MNE subsidiaries in multiple contexts, and it will be of considerable interest to scholars engaged with institutional analysis. However, I also believe that researchers interested in regional embeddedness, the geography of innovation, and knowledge management will find new angles to their work in this collected volume.’- Sarianna M. Lundan, University of Bremen, Germany