Globalization, corporate identity and European technology policy1

Abstract

Abstract The globalization of competition in key high technology sectors has confronted European policy‐makers with a dilemma. While the promotion of high technology sectors has become a major priority of European policy in recent years, the growing physical presence of subsidiaries of foreign multinational companies (MNCs) in the European Union (EU) has complicated the issue of what the promotion of ‘European high technology industry’ means. In practice, a large number of ‘foreign’ subsidiaries from EFTA and the US gain access to important European technology programmes such as ESPRIT, RACE, BRITE and EUREKA, as well as some national programmes. However, this has not been true for most subsidiaries of Japanese firms, despite the increasingly large presence they have in the European economy. This article asks what can explain this outcome. Two important cases which have brought issues of foreign firm access to the fore of European technology policy‐making, IBM and ICL‐Fujitsu, are examined. Both European ...