Jhfhebdjcj

How did Sony internationalize its R&D activities? What were the initial motivations for Sony to establish technology centers abroad? How would Kummerle categorize the R&D centers at Sony?

ANSWER:

In the beginning, Sony only exported its products and when the sales took off, the company built a manufacturing plant in that particular areas. Once the manufacturing plants were successful, Sony then built the R&D activities. The steps were all done in a careful and incremental ways. Sony’s founder believed that the best wat was to ‘test’ the market and only jump in when the company had enough confidence in conquering it.

The initial motivations were to solve problems faced by local sales and manufacturing activities, especially to modified products to suit local market and to provide technological supports.

Kuemmerle would categorize Sony as home-base exploiting subsidiaries, because the company brought the information and knowledges from the home to the host country. However, the archetype does not really suit Sony, because the company gives much authority to the foreign subsidiaries.

How have the motivations for internationalizing R&D changed over time?

ANSWER:

Initially, Sony established its R&d abroad to adjust to local market and as a technical support for their foreign subsidiaries. Later, Akio Morita stated the importance of not only adjusting Sony’s products for different market but also could take the benefits of transferring local specialties from its foreign subsidiaries back to their home country. This caused mainly by two important elements; first, the need to make use of the location advantage of operating in foreign countries (such as various advanced knowledge in the US which can be used further to develop their products), and second the need to improve efficiency and to create synergies among subsidiaries. Sony seemed to realize the location advantage that their foreign subsidiaries have and tried to brought the non-location bound...