Survey: No.2008-1-02

Survey on International Questionnaire on R&D Management of Japanese Firms

Research Projects

Organizational and Strategic Challenges for R&D Internationalization of Japanese Firms: A Managerial Approach

Project Leader

ASAKAWA Kazuhiro (Faculty Fellow)

Purposes and Background of the Survey

With the growing importance of emerging Asian countries such as China and India as R&D hubs, the overseas deployment of R&D by western business enterprises to Asia has been accelerating in this century. On the other hand, Japanese enterprises remain resistant to such changes in business environment. This recent international expansion of R&D has brought global changes to R&D structure in both developing and developed countries.

With the realization that the establishment of a new analytical framework suitable for current R&D trends is required, the questionnaire for this survey has been planned in coordination with R&D head offices and overseas R&D bases of Japanese enterprises to understand the current trends of R&D globalization and analyze its strategic aspects, issues, and effective managerial measures based on the latest available data.

The study aims at understanding the challenges and current R&D internationalization trends experienced by Japanese firms in order to gain insights on how managers can better cope with such challenges.

Outline of the Survey

Who were surveyed?
Japanese firms with overseas R&D facilities and their overseas bases
Survey method
Mail survey
Survey period
October 2008 – February 2009
Number of effective responses
47 head offices (35%)
99 overseas bases (20%)