Global R&D management: the case study of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. and Sony Corporation

Summary form only given. Japanese companies were rushing to establish R&D units abroad over the last decade. While such a phenomenon was a major breakthrough for Japanese companies whose foreign R&D activities were not as developed as their American and European counterparts, it also compelled them to address the new management issue: how to manage their R&D laboratories dispersed around the world. This paper reports how Matsushita Electric and Sony have addressed this challenging issue, and provides some insights for global R&D management