Next to Production or to Technological Clusters? The Economics and Management of R&D Location

This paper examines the relationship between the location of R&D and production activities. By using a sample of 799 Japanese investments in Europe, it distinguishes between affiliates performing only R&D, both R&D and production, and production only. The analysis produces two main results. First, R&D tends to locate near production activities. Interestingly, however, the higher the science-intensity of a sector, the less important is the linkage with production - i.e. the higher the number of only R&D labs. This is interpreted as the effect produced by more general and transferable scientific work, compared to applied work. Second, by performing a multinomial logit analysis, we show that R&D independent or linked to production are attracted by different local factors. Managerial and policy implications are also discussed.