Home or next door? Patenting by European food and beverage multinationals

We study the location of the inventive activity of 59 major European food and beverage multinationals and their 8432 subsidiaries worldwide, by analysing the geographical distribution of the inventors listed in the European Patent Office (EPO) applications, US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) pat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Technology analysis & strategic management 2012-08, Vol.24 (7), p.647-661
Main Authors: Martínez, Catalina, Rama, Ruth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beverage industry
Beverages
business and corporate strategy
Europe
European Union
Food industry
Food processing industry
Foods
Inventions
Inventors
Multinational corporations
Multinational enterprises
multinationals
Offices
patent analysis
Planning methods
Position (location)
Research and development
Strategic management
Strategy
Studies
Subsidiaries
Technological change
technology and innovation studies
Western Europe
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Description
Summary:We study the location of the inventive activity of 59 major European food and beverage multinationals and their 8432 subsidiaries worldwide, by analysing the geographical distribution of the inventors listed in the European Patent Office (EPO) applications, US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patents and triadic, international and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patent families of the companies filed between 1978 and the early 2000s. The sampled companies tend to locate their R&D activities in the home country. EU-based companies, more specifically, deploy an intra-regional strategy in EU countries, especially with regard to the inventions most closely related to their core businesses (food), for which, however, they do not display a home-country preference. Inventions related to non-core business tend to be produced in extra-regional locations.
ISSN:0953-7325
1465-3990
DOI:10.1080/09537325.2012.705118