Multinational Enterprises’ R&D Commitments in Chinese Provinces: A Configurational Approach

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are increasingly off-shoring some of their R&D to emerging markets, including China. Much of the extant literature on MNEs’ investments in R&D facilities abroad analyses technological and institutional factors at the national level, typically using regressions to examine how host-country institutions influence foreign MNEs’ outlays. It, therefore, tends to downplay the importance of sub-national and non-technology-related institutions, and how configurations of home- and host-country institutions interact to influence R&D commitments abroad. Drawing on the global factory model and the Varieties of Capitalism approach, we identify five causal conditions that may influence MNEs’ R&D commitments abroad. Conducting an abductive fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, we find four combinations of causal conditions are sufficient to explain substantial R&D commitments in different Chinese provinces. The combination of local corruption and provincial R&D intensity is important, as are the MNE’s home-country stock-market capitalization to GDP ratio and minority investor protection. We contribute to the literature on MNEs’ investments abroad by extending the importance of sub-national institutions to include those not directly related to technology. We also reveal how combinations of institutions (rather than individual ones acting independently) from the MNE’s home and host contexts explain MNEs’ R&D commitments in Chinese provinces. Keywords: Transaction cost economics; Varieties of Capitalism; R&D investments abroad; R&D intensity; Corruption; China