Dissipation of Knowledge and the Boundaries of the Multinational Enterprise

Arbeitspapier

This paper provides a theoretical formalisation of the joint-venture contract, as an alternative to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), within a Dissipation of Intangible Assets framework. In a two-period model, we discuss how the threat of knowledge spillover shapes the boundaries of a Multinational Enterprise. Similarly to the theoretical findings on the FDI-licensing trade off, we show that the integrated solution is more likely to emerge when know-how easily spills over – i.e. when firms are endowed with more Intangible Assets or they belong to high tech industries. Probit estimates, from a new firm-level dataset, show that Japanese manufacturing operations in Europe are in line with these predictions.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Nota di Lavoro ; No. 121.2005

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Multinational Firms; International Business ; Single Equation Models; Single Variables: Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities
• Subject: Dissipation ; Intangible assets ; FDI ; joint-venture ; Internalisation ; Japan ; Joint Venture ; Direktinvestition ; Immaterielles Anlagevermögen ; Wissenstransfer ; Multinationales Unternehmen ; Japan

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gattai, Valeria
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)
• (where): Milano
• (when): 2005

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/74269
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:46 AM CET