Motive, form and function of international R&D alliances: Evidence from the Chinese IT industry

Abstract

This article adds to the research literature on international R&D alliances by focusing on alliances formed by multinational corporations with Chinese organizations. Using publicly available information, we developed a sample of 80 international R&D alliances between multinational corporations and Chinese organizations in the information technology industry in China formed during the period from 1997 to 2003. We use these data to test hypotheses on the connections between the declared motives, organizational form and R&D activity function of such alliances. Our analysis shows that the two most frequent motives of multinational corporations when establishing R&D alliances with Chinese organizations are establishing vertical linkages and obtaining human resources. Within the context of a strong preference for non-equity-based cooperative agreements, our analysis also provides some evidence for an association between the choice of form and motive, strong evidence for an association between function and motive, and strong evidence for an association between the form and function.