Press Release

Investigating the Chances & Challenges of Offshore R&D in India: Invitation to Join Research

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Hamburg (19.06.2007): Currently, a strong trend of internationalization of innovation ("global innovation") can be observed over many countries participating in the global economy. This tendency is reflected in the increasing number of offshore research and development (R&D) centres located in emerging economies such as China and India. Whereas global innovation was until recently limited to multinational corporations (MNCs), an increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is following this trend.

Research Project Global Innovation (RPGI) is an initiative of the Institute for Technology & Innovation Management (TIM) at Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Germany. A primary objective of this project is to observe, analyze and forecast developments in the field of globalization of innovation. It further aims to provide decision-makers from selected industry sectors with useful insights while deciding on whether or not to internationalize their innovation / R&D activities and to which locations. Apart from this strategic perspective we intend to identify necessary organizational- and process-related changes that eventually need to be mastered.

For this purpose, we conduct a study of international firms engaged in innovation / R&D activities in India. The study will cover following aspects:

1. Which innovation / R&D activities are conducted in India today? (E.g. design, product development, prototype testing etc.)
2. What are the motives for conducting such activities in India?
3. How are these activities conducted in India? (E.g. via own R&D units, collaboration or delegation)
4. What are challenges of building up and maintaining R&D units in India?
   1. Local aspects in the host country
   2. Organizational and process-related aspects (e.g. coordination)
5. What role does the Indian unit play for the global innovation strategy of the firm?

To develop a deeper understanding of these issues and to derive useful implications for globally active firms, we conduct personal interviews with senior level managers responsible for corporate strategy and R&D of international companies.

Our interviews will take place

between June 26th and July 11th in Delhi (Gurgaon, NOIDA etc.),
between July 12th and July 15th in Ahmedabad,
between July 15th and July 23rd in Mumbai / Pune,
between July 24th and July 31st in Bangalore.

The interviews are planned to last 60 to 90 minutes. We kindly ask you to give us the opportunity for a personal interview. The results of this survey will be evaluated anonymously and all participants will be provided with the results.

Thank you kindly for your cooperation in advance.

Prof. Dr. Cornelius Herstatt

Dr. Stephan Buse

Dipl.-Kfm. Rajnish Tiwari

Project website: http://www.global-innovation.net/

For further enquiries about the studies, contact:
Rajnish Tiwari

Research Project Global Innovation
Institute for Technology & Innovation Management
Hamburg University of Technology (TU Hamburg )
Am Schwarzenberg-Campus 4
D-21073 Hamburg (Germany),

Tel.: +49 - (0)40 - 428 78 - 37 76 (office) / 37 77 (Secretariat)
Fax: +49 - (0)40 - 428 78 - 28 67
E-Mail: rajnish.tiwari@tuhh.de
Institute's website: http://www.tuhh.de/tim

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