Analysis of Japanese Multinational firms’ Research and Development Activities in Singapore

The purpose of this paper is to consider the effects of the internationalization of Japanese firms' R&D. In the paper, Singapore is defined as the target country because of its central role among Southeast Asia from economic and research point of view. The paper aims to verify this hypothesis by an empirical validation using panel data. Patent application data of subsidiary firms is applied as the KPI of local research activities, and 10 years of financial data from 94 Japanese parent firms is analyzed using a statistical method. In conclusion, the analysis result shows that Japanese firms' R&D activities in Singapore will contribute to the competitiveness of parent firms in Japan. In addition, it is also found that Japanese firms' local R&D in Singapore can support local manufacturing operations through "production-driven" activities[7][8]. The complexity and diversity of overseas R&D activities requires further studies on globalization and its impact on organization for efficient R&D management.

I. Introduction

Recently Japanese firms have actively invested in overseas research and development (R&D) especially in Southeast Asia, and their roles are diversified depending on target country and target industry.