Global R & D in China

First came the outsourcing of manufacturing. Pundits opined that the research and development (R&D) function would never follow, but now it appears they were wrong. China, for example, is the leading venue for R&D for multinational firms, and hundreds of leading companies are now conducting the majority of their R&D work there. This collection of nine essays concentrates on multinational firms' R&D operations in China, with topics including the connection between China and high technology R&D, historical legacies of innovation in China and emerging institutions, sources of rising R&D intensity, multinational regional innovation network and their effects, explanations for over-concentration of foreign R&D in Beijing and Shanghai, environmental challenges for foreign R&D in China, and upgrades in subsidiary technology and international technology transfer. This was previous published as a special issue of the Asian pacific Business Review. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)