Intangible assets and MNEs’ locational strategies for innovation—or: why the regional matters

Abstract

This paper provides qualitative insights on the key channels through which intangible assets are enhanced in the innovation processes of multinational enterprises (MNEs), and describes their spatial roots and impacts. The focus is specifically on three intangible assets, namely human, organisational and network capital, which have been shown by the literature to be crucial both to MNEs’ activities and to regional knowledge creation and spillovers. The research has been based on over forty in-depth interviews to senior managerial and technical staff of flagship MNEs of the automotive, life science and ICT sector from both Germany and the United Kingdom. By focussing on the processes through which investment in intangible assets occurs and the structures that support those processes within the firm and the regional environment, some of the key dimensions through which the three intangible assets are enhanced and contribute to the embeddedness of MNEs in regional innovation systems are identified.