INTERNATIONALIZATION AND INNOVATIVE EFFORT: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS IN MULTINATIONALS IN DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Abstract

The themes of Internationalization and Innovation have been widely debated in the business literature. Many studies show that there is an interdependence relationship with causality occurring in both directions, indicating the possibility of a vicious circle. In view of this, the present article aims to analyze and compare the relationship between the degree of internationalization (IG) and innovative effort through the intensity in R&D (IP&D) of multinational companies from developed countries (DP) and developing countries (PED). For the analysis, regressions were performed with panel data from a sample with 445 observations from companies in developed countries and 473 observations from companies from developing countries. In general, the results indicated that the formation of an alliance to search for innovation in terms of R&D is negatively related to the geographical distance between companies, generating an important practical and managerial implication in the scope of the literature on internationalization and innovation. In this way, this work contributes by throwing light on a “counter-discussion” of this theme and still points to the need for research to rethink the theory of international strategy, with wide study paths opening up for contributions to a ‘regional strategy’.